India to lose duty-free access to US market

Mumbai: India is among six countries that could lose duty-free access to the American market with the signing into law of a revamped trade programme under the generalised system of preferences for 2007, US trade representative said. Brazil, India and Venezuela along with Thailand, the Philippines and the Ivory Coast have been marked out of US generalised system of preferences (GSP) programme for developing countries under the revised policy of according trade benefits, the chief US trade negotiator said.

The US administration is free to revoke waivers when import of a certain good from one country exceeds an annual cap of about $187.5 million, or if imports from that source comprises 75 per cent of total US imports of that good.

India could lose duty-free access for gold jeweler and brass lamps, according to preliminary estimates of the USTR. The country shipped $1.6 billion in gold jeweler and $20 million in brass lamps to the US under the GSP programme in the first 10 months of the current year.

Thailand also would lose duty-free access for gold jeweler, of which it sold $611 million to the US in first ten months of 2006.

Brazil would lose duty free access for brake and brake parts, which totaled $242 million in the 10-month period of January-October 2006, and for ferrozirconium, which totaled $700,000. The new legislation has extended the GSP programme for two years until December 31, 2008.