(Image source from: League of India)

President Donald Trump on Saturday terminated the United States preferential trade program with India ending India’s designation as the beneficiary developing country under the key Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade program.

According to a White House, the trade preference program with India will be terminated from June 5, 2019.

GSP trade program allows emerging countries to export goods to the United States without paying duties.

Donald Trump in March had announced his intention to remove India from the decades-old GSP program over what the United States said was lack of access to India's market.

"I have determined that India has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets," Trump said in a statement on Friday.

On Friday, a senior State Department official had said that the suspension of a U.S. trade preference program with India is a "done deal”. He, however, also said that the benefits of preferential trade program could be restored if India gave U.S. companies fair and equitable access to its markets.

"We believe if India is prepared to address policies, including data localization, e-commerce measures that served to stifle international investment for top-tier companies, that we can continue to make significant progress moving forward," the official added.

India is the world’s largest beneficiary of the GSP, which allows preferential duty-free imports of up to $5.6 billion from the South Asian nation.

Twenty-four members of the U.S. Congress sent the administration a letter on May 3 urging it not to terminate India's access to the GSP. If Trump drops India from the program, the Indian officials would potentially raise the import duties on more than 20 U.S. goods.

By Sowmya Sangam