US senators push for delay in India’s trade benefits review
GSP RELOOK Say LS poll may serve as hindrance in negotiations
WASHINGTON: Two senior US senators, who head the bipartisan India Caucus in the upper chamber of Congress, joined Friday a growing demand for the US trade representative (USTR) to delay a presidential proclamation terminating duty-free benefits for some imports from India by at least 30 days.
The proclamation is due in a fortnight on May 4, at the end of a 60-day notice period that started March 4 when the White House notified US Congress of the Trump administration’s intention to terminate India’s eligibility for the duty-free programme called the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
Senators John Cornyn, Republican, and Mark Warner, Democrat, urged the USTR, Robert Lighthizer, in a joint letter to delay the presidential proclamation for “at least 30 days” in order to “move the negotiations beyond India’s elections”.
They added, “We believe that the election season may serve as a hindrance for our Indian counterparts in negotiating and concluding a deal on difficult political issues.If another round of negotiations during the election season does not address the outstanding issues, we would ask you to consider delaying the issuance of the presidential proclamation.”
Representative George Holding, the Republican co-chair of the India Caucus in the House of Representatives, made a similar appeal to the USTR in an earlier letter for delaying the proclamation till after the elections. “It is important that we have a non-political conversation about our differences and how we can best move forward, and I am concerned that this is not the right time to address India’s GSP eligibility,” he wrote.
Other US lawmakers have weighed in as well. “My hope is that we can delay the termination of these GSP preferences until after the elections in India so that we can have a non-political conversation that is very focused on how we collectively can move forward together,” said Representative Tulsi Gabbard, former India Caucus co-chair who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
To be clear, the lawmakers have only sought more time for negotiations, but not a mitigation of the Trump administration’s demands and efforts to address market access issues, which, Cornyn and Warner wrote, “we fully appreciate and support”.
In the notification to Congress, the White House had cited one reason for terminating the GSP benefits — India had “not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to” its markets for, not naming them, American dairy products and medical devices.
India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP and exported $5.6 billion worth of goods under the duty-free programme in 2017.