US Government Urged To Delay Decision on GSP.

The GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference program and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries. The US Congress in March last year voted to renew the GSP through 2020.

Two top American Senators have urged the Trump administration to delay the decision until the end of the general elections, the decision to terminate India's designation as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) due to a lack of compliance.

Senators John Cornyn from the Republican Party and Mark Warner from the Democratic Party argued that India-US relationship was too important to rush such an important decision in the middle of an election cycle.

If another round of negotiations during the election season does not resolve the outstanding issues, we would ask you to consider delaying the issuance of a Presidential proclamation to withdraw India's GSP benefits by at least 30 days, beyond the 60-day calendar, in order to move the negotiations beyond India's elections the Senators urged, further stating that the underscore the importance of this bilateral relationship and provide a real opportunity to resolve these market access issues, potentially improving the overall US-India relationship for years to come.