TIL Desk/World/Washington/ The year-long trade war with China is pushing American companies to source more from GSP countries such as India, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Turkey, a latest report said Tuesday warning that cancelling GSP benefits to India would only help China.
The Coalition for GSP, a group of American companies and trade associations, in a report on Tuesday said the latest official trade figures shows that the Generalised System of Preference or GSP saved American companies USD 105 million in March, an increase of USD 28 million (36 per cent) from March, 2018 and the second-highest level on record.
In the first quarter of 2019, GSP saved American companies USD 285 million. That is USD 63 million more than the first quarter of 2018 — itself a record-shattering year. GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.
On March 4, President Donald Trump announced that the US intends to terminate India’s designations as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme. The 60-day notice period ended on May 3. According to the Washington DC-based Coalition for GSP, products hit by Section 301 tariffs when imported from China account for 90 per cent of increased GSP imports in 2019.
