The U.S. intends to move India and Turkey out of a program under which a group of developing countries receives preferential trade treatment. Dr. Harun Ozturkler, a professor from Kırıkkale University said that new U.S. change went against the goal of improving U.S.-Turkey trade relations but has little impact on Turkey's export.

According to a statement issued by the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office Monday, Ankara has achieved a "higher level of economic development". And the USTR's office cited "an increase in Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, declining poverty rates, and export diversification" as evidence.

“This could not be the new news (for us),” he said, adding that U.S. and Turkey agreed to a new target last February, which aimed to increase the bilateral trade volume from the current 20 billion U.S. dollars to 35 billion U.S. dollars. Therefore, Washington's latest action “contradicted the target”, he claimed.

Meanwhile, he indicated that Turkey only accounted for 8.2 percent of the total Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program – about 20.1 billion U.S. dollars. And Turkey's exports to the U.S. through this program were less than 1 percent of Turkey's total export. He acknowledged that SMEs might be influenced negatively; in the meantime, he projected that the pending move from the U.S. side would have little impact on Turkey's export.

“So that's not going to be a huge impact on Turkey's export,” he told CGTN.

The USTR's office said that these changes may not take effect until at least 60 days after the notifications to Congress and the governments of India and Turkey, and will be enacted by a Presidential Proclamation.