{"id":52898,"date":"2017-05-11T22:24:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T02:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52898"},"modified":"2017-05-11T22:24:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T02:24:59","slug":"european-union-formally-restores-gsp-concessions-denied-to-sri-lanka-7-years-ago-during-rajapaksa-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52898","title":{"rendered":"European Union Formally Restores GSP+ Concessions Denied to Sri Lanka 7 Years Ago During Rajapaksa Rule."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe European Union has formally restored the GSP+ concessions to Sri Lanka seven years after key beneficiary access to the country\u2019s biggest export market was suspended. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s Information Department said last night that the European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Council had approved GSP plus for Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n

The Department said the EU approval completes the three procedural requirements for Sri Lanka to receives GSP Plus status. “The official notification on the entry into force will be finalised next week,” it added.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka last month secured a crucial vote at the European Parliament in Brussels and Sri Lanka\u2019s application was referred to the 28-member European Union Council of Ministers for approval.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In granting the GSP+ facility, the EU\u2019s Foreign Affairs Council said Sri Lanka has ratified and implemented measures contained in a number of international conventions on human and labor rights, environment protection and good governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn this basis, Sri Lanka has become eligible to receive additional tariff preferences for sustainable development and good governance, in addition to the generalized scheme of tariff preferences benefitting to all developing countries,\u201d the Council said.<\/p>\n

The EU is Sri Lanka\u2019s biggest export market accounting for nearly one-third of Sri Lanka\u2019s global exports. In 2015, total bilateral trade amounted to Euro 4.7 billion. EU imports from Sri Lanka amounted to euro 2.6 billion and consisted mainly of textiles as well as rubber products and machinery. The concessions are particularly valuable to the apparel, rubber products and ceramics industries. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great win for the Government and for the people of Sri Lanka,\u201d Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister de Silva told the Daily FT last night.<\/p>\n

He assured that within the next two weeks Sri Lanka could export some 6,600 products to the EU market without any tax and called on the business community to make this a \u201cturning point\u201d for economic prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegaining GSP+ calls on Sri Lanka to open up further to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) in order to diversify our export basket. We need to change our export basket from being buyer-driven to producer-driven to reap the best from this opportunity,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

With approval coming during a period when the Government was working on multiple foreign trade agreements as well as when large foreign investors were looking at Sri Lanka, Dr. de Silva said it was time that the country seized this opportunity to turn around the economy once again into a strong regional player in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are large investors looking at opportunities in Sri Lanka. The Inland Revenue Act, which will come into effect soon, will set out new opportunities for investors. The Chinese investment zone in Hambantota will soon begin to take shape and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore will be finalised in the next couple of months. So everything is moving in the right direction,\u201d Dr.de Silva added. <\/p>\n

In April when Sri Lanka secured the EU Parliamentary vote Dr. de Silva said: \u201cSri Lanka overcame the biggest hurdle.\u201d He also expressed confidence in securing final approval, which had been communicated last night to the Government. <\/p>\n

The motion against Sri Lanka\u2019s application in the EU Parliament in April was defeated by 436 votes against and 119 in favour with 22 abstentions. <\/p>\n

The EU withdrew the coveted tariff concessions from Sri Lanka in 2010 in the face of the country\u2019s deteriorating human rights record and failure to comply with its international human rights obligations under the administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. After President Rajapaksa\u2019s defeat at the 2015 presidential elections, the new Government reapplied for the import duty concession. <\/p>\n

EU Ambassador Tung-La\u00ef Margue, in his message to mark Europe Day 2017 which fell on 9 May, said Sri Lanka\u2019s renewed commitment to respecting international rule of law and upholding its international human rights, labour rights and environmental obligations has resulted in the European Commission recommending the reinstatement of GSP+. <\/p>\n

\u201cGetting there took many hours of intense collaboration between Sri Lanka and the EU, as together we examined Sri Lanka\u2019s compliance with the 27 international conventions on which the GSP+ assessment is based. I hope that our colleagues in the Member States and in the European Parliament will soon indicate that they are happy for readmission to take place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy;Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Union has formally restored the GSP+ concessions to Sri Lanka seven years after key beneficiary access to the country\u2019s biggest export market was suspended. The Government\u2019s Information Department said last night that the European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Council had approved GSP plus for Sri Lanka. The Department said the EU approval completes …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘European Union Formally Restores GSP+ Concessions Denied to Sri Lanka 7 Years Ago During Rajapaksa Rule.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52899,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52898\/revisions\/52899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}