COLOMBO: The European Union (EU) will restore the General System of Preferences Plus (GSP Plus) trade concession to Sri Lanka only if it sees satisfactory progress in the implementation of the resolution of the UN human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 2015 which Sri Lanka had cosponsored with the United States.
This was stated by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after talks with the leaders of the EU at Brussels.
Wckremesinghe is quoted in the state-owned Daily News as saying that the EU is now making a “technical assessment” of Sri Lanka’ case for restoration of the GSP-Plus concession, which essentially means assessment of the progress made on the human rights and ethnic reconciliation fronts.
The technical evaluation report will be placed before the European Commission and thereafter before the European Parliament for approval .If all goes well, Sri Lanka will get the zero duty facility in mid 2017.
The GSP Plus concession was given in 2001-2002 but suspended in February 2010, months after Eelam War IV ended, on the grounds that the Mahinda Rajapaksa government did not take steps to make amends for the war crimes allegedly committed by Sri Lankan forces at the end of the war. The virtual incarceration of 290,000 odd war refugees in army run camps ringed by barbed wire fencing also went against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s lost about US$ 150 million annually, as a result of the withdrawal of the GSP Plus concession. Its products became 10 percent more costly in the European market .But some Sri Lankan exporters did not pass on the tax burden to consumers in order to remain competitive. The apparel sector was the greatest loser as 50 percent of its exports went to the EU.