The US has finally renewed its generalized system of preferences (GSP) programme, which earlier ended on July 31, 2013, under which the Indian exporters will get concessional duty treatment in the US market. The programme has been renewed retrospectively from August 1, 2013 and further will be present till December 31, 2017. India will get duty advantage in respect of 3500 product lines.
The domestic sectors which will get advantage from this duty benefits include certain textiles, gems & jewellery, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. However, products whose annual exports to the US have reached $170 million would not be able to avail the benefit of this programme.
Federation of Indian Export Organizations' (FIEO) President SC Ralhan said that this move will benefit Indian exports and will also increase competitiveness of Indian goods which are covered under GSP in US market. Further, this will help in increasing shipments to the US, which accounts for 13% of Indian exports. The decision of US is significant development at a time when India's exports continue to be in the negative zone.
Declining for the seventh month in a row, country's exports decreased by 15.82% to $22.28 billion in June as global slowdown took place. In the previous fiscal the two way trade between India and the US stood at $64.26 billion.