Apparel exporters vie to regain EU GSP plus
Sri Lanka’s apparel industry has hailed moves by the President Maithripala Sirisena administration to regain the special concessions for over 70 products to the European Union under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) plus.
With the new government keen on re-establishing the independent commissions and looking at adopting a home-grown mechanism to overcome the war crimes allegations, the Joint Apparel Association Federeation (JAAF) General Secretary Tuly Cooray told the Business Times that these could help secure the GSP plus.
He explained that in addition, the new administration was also looking at now exploring the possibility of engaging these issues with the UN Human Rights Council, which would in effect secure the GSP plus concessions.
In this respect, the apparel industry had communicated by letter to the government appraising the new regime’s policies to ensure GSP plus concessions for Sri Lankan exporters, he said.
Mr. Cooray pointed out that the government was acting carefully in regaining these concessions as there would be a need to ensure they create the required capacity for which special programmes would have to be implemented.
Quantum Clothing CEO Yohan Lawrence said Sri Lanka had in terms of value grown however the country is likely to have lost a number of orders due to the concessions being withdrawn.
Moreover, he pointed out that customers were purchasing different products in less quantity for instance without buying sweaters they would opt for high value added fabric clothing made from high quality imported material.
Following the withdrawal of tariff concessions for exporters to the EU at least one large factory in the Katunayaka Free Trade Zone (FTZ) closed down that employed approximately 2000 workers in addition to a number of relatively smaller factories elsewhere.
Industry revenue for last year upto November was at $4.3 billion compared to $3.8 billion made for the same period in 2013 indicating an 11 per cent increase. The apparel sector is currently looking at achieving approximately $4.8 billion on average in 2015.