Washington DC: With the Senate acquitting sitting President Donald Trump on two impeachment cases, the Trump administration is now bringing key changes to penalize about two dozen so-called developing countries which also includes India.
With the historical end to the four-month impeachment process, the US is changing a key exemption to America’s trade-remedy laws which makes it easier to penalize countries.
The US has narrowed down its internal list of developing and undeveloped countries on Monday to reduce the threshold for triggering a US investigation into whether nations are harming US industries with unfairly subsidized exports, according to a US Trade Representative notice.
To take action against these countries harming the US industry, the US eliminated its special preferences for a list of self-declared developing countries that includes: Albania; Argentina; Armenia; Brazil; Bulgaria; China; Colombia; Costa Rica; Georgia; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Kazakhstan; the Kyrgyz Republic; Malaysia; Moldova; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Romania; Singapore; South Africa; South Korea; Thailand; Ukraine; and Vietnam.
Now, these new development marks would end two decades of American trade policy regarding developing nations which could result in more stringent penalties for some of the world’s top exporters.
This will affect large economies like China and India which are permitted to receive preferential trade benefits as developing nations at the World Trade Organization.
During his visit to Davos, Switzerland, last month Trump said the WTO hasn’t treated America fairly. “China is viewed as a developing nation. India is viewed as a developing nation. We’re not viewed as a developing nation. As far as I’m concerned, we’re a developing nation, too.”
WTO’s special preference for Developing country
The WTO’s goal for developing nations is to help the poorer countries reduce poverty, generate employment and integrate themselves into the global trading system.
Under this WTO rule, the governments are required to terminate their countervailing duty investigations if the amount of foreign subsidy is de minimis, which is normally defined as less than 1% ad valorem.