President Trump indicated in a press release from the USTR that he intends to remove India and Turkey from the list of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligible countries. GSP provides reduced tariff rates for certain products from certain developing and least developed countries.

In the case of India, the removal is a response to India’s alleged failure to provide market access assurances, whereas in the case of Turkey the removal is predicated on a finding that Turkey is at a sufficiently high level of economic development that continued treatment as a developing country is unwarranted.

U.S. law requires the President to give 60 days notice to Congress and the recipient-country before removing GSP eligibility. Therefore, tariffs will increase for certain GSP-eligible products from those two countries as soon as May 3, 2019.

The action to remove India followed a series of bilateral consultations between the US and India that failed to resolve issues affecting market access by U.S. exporters to India on a range of products. The GSP petition to remove India was originally filed by U.S. medical device and dairy producers in April 2018, leading to attempted bilateral negotiations to address the market barriers identified by the petitioners as well as other barriers noted by U.S. negotiators.