President Donald Trump has ordered the abolition of preferential trade benefits for India and Turkey under a program to support developing countries because they no longer meet the criteria to take advantage of the program, the White House said Monday.
"At the request of President Donald Trump, the US Trade Representative announced today that the United States intends to end the status granted to India and Turkey as developing countries benefiting from the GSP program," which facilitates the entry of their exports into the US market, the US Trade Representative´s Office said in a statement.
The statement added that the reason for this decision is that these two countries no longer meet the criteria required to take advantage of this program.
The representative of US trade in his statement that India and Turkey will be removed from the program of trade support at the same time, but for two different reasons.
"Despite promises," India has failed to provide guarantees that it will allow "fair and reasonable access to its markets in many sectors," he said.
Turkey considered the statement to be "economically developed enough" because it was not considered a developing country and therefore no longer eligible for this support program.
"Over the four and a half decades during which Turkey has benefited from the development of the GSP for developing countries, the Turkish economy has grown and diversified," the statement said.
The US presidency has cited a series of "evidence of the high level of development" in the Turkish economy, including Turkey´s high per capita income and low poverty rate.
This trade support program allows recipient countries to exempt some of their exports from US customs duties provided that they meet certain conditions, including combating child labor, respect for internationally recognized workers´ rights, respect for intellectual property and fair and reasonable access to US exports.
According to the statement, the departure of India and Turkey from the United States preferential status will become effective at least 60 days after the White House notified both the US Congress and the governments of the two countries of this decision.
