At U.S. President Donald Trump's direction, Washington intends to scrap the preferential trade status granted to India and Turkey, the U.S. trade chief's office said Monday local time. 

India responded that its tariffs are within its bound rates under the World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, and it is ready to talk with the U.S. about trade-related issues, according to an official communication of the country's Commerce and Industry Ministry on Tuesday.

Turkey's trade minister also responded Tuesday that the U.S. intends to end the preferential trade status granted to Turkey that conflicted with the NATO allies' push to increase commercial exchanges.

Washington "intends to terminate India's and Turkey's designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria," the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement Monday.

The changes cannot take effect for at least 60 days following the notification of Congress as well as the countries affected, a process Trump began Monday with letters to leaders in Congress.

The GSP program is the oldest trade concession plan and the largest one in scale in the United States. It aims to promote developing countries' and regions' economic development through tariff reduction and to promote trade diversification. There are currently 120 countries and regions under the program.

India "has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce," the U.S. said in the statement Monday.

At the end of December, India suddenly announced the revision of rules for the country's e-commerce market, a move considered against Amazon and Wal-Mart which have invested heavily in India. 

The country then launched new information and digital regulations, forcing global credit card payment companies such as MasterCard and Visa to transfer their data to India, and it imposed higher tariffs on electronics and smartphones.

"Indian policymakers' pressure on U.S. companies will continue to increase, and the policy change will benefit local companies, which triggered strong dissatisfaction from the American companies. The latter filed complaints and pressure on U.S. agencies in charge of foreign affairs and commerce and demanded the U.S. government to recover losses for them. These factors have contributed to the U.S. retaliatory measures against India," Qian Xiaoyan, a reporter from Yicai, said.

Under the GSP program, certain products can enter the U.S. duty-free if countries meet eligibility criteria including "providing the United States with equitable and reasonable market access." India has failed to provide assurances that it would allow required market access, according to the U.S. statement.

The change for India came after "intensive engagement" between New Delhi and Washington, Trump wrote in one letter released by the White House.

"I will continue to assess whether the government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets, in accordance with the GSP eligibility criteria," the president wrote.

However, the Indian statement said specific U.S. requests were "not found reasonable and doable" at this time by various concerned government departments, in the light of public welfare concerns reflective of India's developing country status and its national interest.

In India's case, the GSP concessions extended by the U.S. amounted to duty reduction of only 190 million U.S. dollars annually, said the Indian statement.

"It is pertinent that India's tariffs are within its bound rates under WTO commitments, and are on the average well below these bound rates," it said.

"India's trade-weighted average tariffs are 7.6 percent, which is comparable with the most open developing economies, and some developed economies. On developmental considerations there may be a few tariff peaks, which is true for almost all economies," it further said.

The Indian statement also said, "India was agreeable to a very meaningful mutually acceptable package to be agreed to at this time, while keeping remaining issues under discussion in the future."

The U.S. statement said Turkey, after being designated a GSP beneficiary in 1975, has meanwhile demonstrated a "higher level of economic development," meaning that it can be "graduated" from the program. 

Trump said in his letter on Turkey that the country's economy "has grown and diversified," and noted that Istanbul has already "graduated from other developed countries' GSP programs."

The U.S. decision to cancel Turkey's preferential trade status came at a time of strained relations between Turkish President Erdogan's and Trump. The U.S. previously doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, and sanctioned two senior Turkish officials. After the retaliatory actions from Turkey, the U.S. re-examined last August whether Turkey was eligible for preferential trade status.

"This decision contradicts our mutual objective of reaching bilateral trade volume of 75 billion U.S. dollars... The decision will also negatively affect U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises and manufacturers," Turkey's Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan tweeted. 

"We still would like to pursue our target of increasing our bilateral trade with the U.S. who we see as our strategic partner, without losing any momentum," she said. 

(With inputs from Xinhua and AFP)