China Will Benefit, We Will Lose Revenue: India To US Commerce Secretary On Slashing Duties On ICT Goods

India has conveyed to the United States' (US) Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross who was on a visit to the country that India would lose as much as $3.2 billion a year in customs revenue if it scraps the up to 20 per cent duties on the seven Information And Communications Technology (ICT) products acceding to the US demand, even though it will only help China and Hong Kong and not the US, reports Financial Express.

New Delhi stressed that the US made up for only 2 per cent (or $415 million) of India’s imports of seven ICT products, including high-end cell phones and smart watches worth $20.5 billion in FY18. This meant that if it slashed tariffs, the benefits for the US would be minimal while delivering windfall gains for China and Hong Kong.

The items on which the US wants India to cut or scarp duties include high-end mobile phones costing over Rs 10,000, mobile phone parts, smart watches, telecom network equipment (such as switches and routing equipment), radio receivers and certain print circuit assemblies.

New Delhi also underscored that its potential revenue loss of $3.2 billion stand much north of the export incentives of $190 million that the US offered India in FY18 under the so-called Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) whose withdrawal for India was announced by President Donald trump in March 2019.