The US has ended trade concessions for India under GSP. India calls the decision discriminatory, arbitrary, and detrimental to the development, finance and trade needs of India, which is a vast and diverse developing country with unique challenges. Turkey has also been stripped of its GSP trade concessions. Punitive tariff hikes will be imposed on imports from Mexico over its leniency toward immigrants from Central America.

The US is on a mission to end the massive trade deficits and has imposed or hopes to impose higher tariffs on imports from several countries while involved in a trade war with China.

India came under the GSP program in 1975. The program is limited to certain categories like apparel and footwear with the aim of alleviating poverty by promoting exports by poor craftspeople and artisans in those sectors. In retaliation for the US raising tariffs of steel and aluminium imports from India, India has threatened to increase duties on agricultural products like walnuts, apples and other fruits imported from the US. The US dairy industry says India’s sanitary and phytosanitary requirements are unscientific and so exporting to India is difficult. According to Indian laws imports should not come from cows that have been given cannibalised feed that includes offal or other meat products. India provides unimpeded market access to dairy products from all countries that meet the criteria.