US warns India of more action against ‘unfair’ trade practices

Wednesday 26th June 2019 06:30 EDT
 
 

The Trump administration has warned India that it would be compelled to take "additional action" against the country over its "unfair" trade practices as both nations fail to make headway on these issues. The warning from US trade representative Robert Lighthizer came days after President Donald Trump announced that the US would end its preferential trade treatment for India from June 5.

Figures revealed by the Congress suggest that India has been the single biggest beneficiary of the decades-old US Generalised System of Preferences programme, allowing it to export $5.7 billion worth of duty-free goods in 2017. Lightizer said, "We have spent a lot of time worrying about India. It is a massive economy and going to only get bigger... We have a series of problems with them, that we've raised over a period of months."

The comments came in the light of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to India from June 25-27. In a Congressional hearing, Lightizer told the members of the House Ways and Means Committee that the Trump administration over the past few months did a review of GSP, after which the President decided to take the GSP away.

In response to a question from Republican Congressman George Holding, Lightizer said, "We are looking at a variety of other unfair actions (by India) that may provoke us to take some other additional action. We made literally no headway on the issues over the course of months and months and months."

The remarks came after India announced a hike in customs duties on as many as 28 US products, including almond, pulses and walnut, in response to higher tariffs imposed by Washington on Indian products like steel and aluminium. On a positive note, Lightizer said, "They have a new government now. Obviously it's the same leader, but a new government... And I will talk to him in the next few days. My hope we can jumpstart and make some headway."

He alleged at the same time that India has about the "highest tariffs of any country you can imagine" in the world. "They have a very status kind of an economy. It's very heavily regulated. They have created problems in the digital space, in the agricultural space, in regular manufacturing. I mean in retail, just across the board."

Lightizer also added, "The President is going to have the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) at the G-20 summit. And before that I believe secretary Pompeo will be in India meeting with the Prime Minister Modi, before the G-20." Meanwhile, the US State Department has denied media reports that the government planned to have a cap for H-1B work visas for countries that force foreign companies to store data locally.


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