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GSP Plus: EU to consider concessions next week
President Maithripala Sirisena announced this week that the European Union will grant Sri Lanka the GSP+ concession next week. However, this recommendation of the European Commission will still have to be put to the European Council and European Parliament which will check that all of the conditions imposed on Sri Lanka have been met.
The European Union initially gave Sri Lanka a list of 58 conditions which was subsequently shortened to a core group of 15. It calls upon the Government to carry out such reforms as reducing the number of derogations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); repealing those sections of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which are incompatible with the ICCPR or amending them so as to make them clearly compatible with ICCPR; and amending the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide for the right of a suspect to see a lawyer immediately following arrest.
“When an official statement is issued by the EU next week, it will show a recommendation by the European Commission to re-introduce GSP+ preferential duties to Sri Lanka,” an EU diplomat said. “That decision will only then move to the 28 EU countries and the EU Parliament where it will take another few months mainly to verify whether Sri Lanka has indeed met its own commitments to the EU one year ago.”
The EU will also conduct an annual review on these conditions for GSP+ so the Government will have to deliver or the concession will be withdrawn as was the case under the Rajapaksa administration. Once the first EU recommendation is issued next week, the EU will send a team to Colombo to discuss the 58 issues to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has agreed.