EU in talks with Sri Lanka on maintaining trade privileges
March 17, 2010 08:21 am
The European Union (EU) wants to work with Colomboto avoid the withdrawal of Sri
Lanka’s trade privileges with the bloc,
under threat due to rights concerns, an official said Tuesday.
“The Commission remains committed to work with Sri Lanka to see whether the
conditions for a reversal” of a decision last month to suspend the trade
privileges “are in place”, said EU Commission trade spokesman John Clancy. For
that to happen there must first be “significant improvements on the effective
implementation of the human rights conventions,” he added.
European Union nations decided last month to withdraw preferential trade
benefits from Sri Lankadue to “significant shortcomings” on human rights issues, the EU Commission
announced. However the suspension of the GSP+ (Generalised System of
Preferences plus) benefits will not take effect for six months giving Sri Lanka time
to address the problems identified. The European Union’s GSP+ scheme gives 16
poor nations preferential access to the trading bloc in return for following
strict commitments on a wide variety of social and rights issues.
Sri Lankagains about $150 million annually due to preferential tariffs, according to
trade estimates.
The island’s clothing industry is the main beneficiary, using the tax breaks to
sell to high street retailers in Europe.
A high-level Sri Lankan delegation, led by foreign secretary Romesh Jayasinghe,
visited Brusselson Monday for a “preliminary exchange of views”, Clancy said. “The Sri Lankans
and EU counterparts agreed to meet again” on the issue, he added.
AFP
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