India out of US’ developing nations list for Trade Benefits

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit on February 24-25, the US has removed India from its list of developing countries that have been exempted from investigations into whether they harm American industry with unfairly subsidised exports.
The move has cast a shadow on India being able to restore preferential benefits under the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) as part of its trade talks with the US, as only developing countries are eligible for it.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) eliminated a host of countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Argentina.
The US removed India from the list on account of it being a G-20 member and having a share of 0.5% or more of world trade. India’s share in global exports was 1.67% in 2018. In global imports, it was 2.57%.
The US had in January last year proposed withdrawal of special rights and exemptions for emerging economies such as India and China, which are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), G20, classified as “high income” by the World Bank or account for more than 0.5% of global merchandise trade.