India likely to press Joe Biden administration to restore GSP trade privilege

Clinching the much-awaited India-America trade deal is likely to be one of New Delhi’s top priorities for its engagements with Joe Biden’s administration in Washington DC once he takes over as the new President of the United States.

New Delhi is likely to press Biden Administration for early restoration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade privilege for India. The privilege was withdrawn by outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington DC in June 2019 and India has been prodding the United States to restore it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi will seek to speed up negotiation on its proposed trade deal with the US soon after the swearing-in ceremony of the new American President on January 20 next, sources told DH.

The Modi government, is, however aware that it might not be easier to clinch the trade deal with the Biden administration.

Biden’s “Made in All of America” policy, which was articulated during his campaign ahead of the presidential elections, is not exactly the same as Trump’s “America First”, but it does have some of the protectionist streaks of the trade strategy the outgoing US President pursued.

India is likely to stick to its demand for the rollback of higher tariffs the US imposed on some steel and aluminium products as well as for greater market access for its products from sectors such as agriculture, automobile and engineering.

A trade deal was expected to be signed after Modi-Trump meeting in New York on September 24, 2019 – just two days after the two leaders appeared together at the “Howdy! Modi” event in Houston. But the two sides could not narrow differences and the deal was not signed.

A “mini trade deal” with “limited scope” was then expected to be inked after Trump-Modi meeting in New Delhi on February 25, but it was also shelved as Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer could not agree on several points despite hectic negotiation. The Prime Minister and the US President however acknowledged progress in the talks and agreed to add a legal framework to the understanding reached till then even while continuing dialogue to narrow differences on the remaining issues.

Goyal and Lighthizer had the last round of talks in September this year. The Commerce Minister later said that New Delhi had made a “very good offer” to the US.