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EU’s GSP+: Govt. pledges to deliver on international conventions
Government has pledged to the European Union (EU) that it will work towards implementing the 27 international conventions in order to regain the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade concessions at the very earliest, a senior official said yesterday.
This assurance was given to a top level EU delegation that was in the country from the start of this week, to evaluate the current thinking of the new Government in this regard, Director General of Commerce R.D.S. Kumararatne told the Sunday Times.
He said the Government has pledged its fullest cooperation to implement the international obligations, with senior officials and professionals of the Ministries of Finance, Commerce, External Affairs and other areas drawn in to work towards this end,
“However, these things take time, as many issues have to be addressed in a proper and positive manner, and we will be meeting periodically with our counterparts in Brussels, in order to regain this facility in the shortest possible period,” said Mr Kumararatne, who headed the government delegation at the discussions.
He added that a fresh application will also be made to obtain the GSP+ facility at the very earliest, but will take between eight to 10 months before the EU could respond.
To qualify for the GSP facility, recipient countries must demonstrate to the EU that they have ratified and implemented 27 international conventions such as human rights, labour rights, environment issues, good governance, civil and political rights, the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and on the rights of the child among others, a very senior official with the EU Mission in Colombo explained.
“In the case of Sri Lanka, most of these requirements had been ignored by the previous government, that eventually led to the cancellation of this facility in August 2010,” he said.
He further added that the EU delegation observed the present government was genuine in addressing the UN resolutions, unlike the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, and therefore, there was a positive understanding during the discussions, with Brussels ready to cooperate at all times.
He said that the EU Mission in Colombo will be reporting to Brussels on the progress being made in this respect, and the government has been informed accordingly.
Meanwhile, local trade union (TU) representatives also met with the EU delegation, where it was pointed out that the benefits of the earlier GSP concessions did not reach the common worker and therefore, this attitude must change before Brussels endorses the facility once again, a spokesperson for the TUs said.
This facility was withdrawn in August 2010, after the former Mahinda Rajapaksa government failed to implement corrective measures on human rights, labour and worker welfare interests etc, though the situation remains the same even at present, nonetheless, said Apparel Free Trade Workers’ Union (AFTWU) General Secretary, Anton Marcus.