The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The United States has extended its trade war to India by withdrawing preferential trade treatment for India. By scrapping the benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences, which will take effect after 60 days, 1900 items of exports from India, which were exempted from duties, will be affected.
This hostile step comes after the imposition of increased duties on steel and aluminum imports from India, earlier.
The Modi government is not taking a firm position against these adverse measures. Earlier, the Prime Minister himself, on the basis of a phone call from President Trump, reduced the duty on Harley Davidson motorcycles imported from the US by half.
The Polit Bureau demands that the government firmly rebuff such anti-India measures and take necessary steps, including retaliatory trade tariffs, to protect India’s trade interests.