Export of Indian gold jewellery and brass lamps to the US will now attract import tariffs, after Washington on Thursday terminated trade benefits offered under the generalised system of preferences (GSP) to these items.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath was quoted in Washington as saying, “We will take note if and when the moment comes. We will remember it was not extended”.

The US move came barely a week after negotiations on the stalled Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached a deadlock in Potsdam in Germany as trade ministers of India, Brazil, the US and the EU failed to hammer out a consensus on the contentious issue of farm subsidies.

India exported gold jewellery worth $1.6 billion and brass lamps worth $20 million to the US under the GSP programme during the first 10 months of 2006. Read More »