Why Indian textile, leather exporters want restoration of preferential trade terms with US

Indian exporters from labour-intensive sectors like textiles and leather industry are extremely keen on the restoration of trade benefits worth $6 billion under the US’ Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Their pitch comes after Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal made a renewed push for the restoration of these benefits, which were withdrawn in June 2019 by the Donald Trump administration, at the revived India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF) with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai last week.
According to exporters from these sectors, the GSP scheme was withdrawn ‘prematurely’. The exporters said that while the withdrawal hadn’t been too debilitating and didn’t much affect the bilateral trade, a restoration would set some sectors on a better footing.