Will there be unilateral action?
India’s tariffs continue to remain an issue in the further flourishing of bilateral trade ties with the US. This is notwithstanding India-US trade having experienced a seven-fold increase from 2001 to reach S$194 billion in 2018, according to a paper by the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
The US is India’s largest export market for nonagricultural products, as of 2017, accounting for S$62 billion of India’s exports, according to the Sinapore think tank.
Such exports have been facilitated by the preferential access offered by US GSP, which, after its withdrawal, is to affect more than S$8 billion of Indian exports to the US.
Following the withdrawal of GSP, there are concerns over whether the US might resort to more unilateral trade actions against India, given its unhappiness over Indian tariffs.
The paper was published by ISAS this month (1-15 Aug 2019). Here is the link to read the full paper: https://www.isas.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ISAS-Insights-575_Palit-and-Mukherjee.pdf
-/fiinews.com
