EU closes door on trade preferences after Sri Lanka silence
The European Union's executive on Monday closed the door on hopes to extend Sri Lanka's access to a preferential trading scheme, as officials said that Colombo had failed to respond to proposals on human rights.
The move means that Sri Lanka will have its membership of the EU's enhanced Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) suspended on August 15. The European Commission had offered to keep Sri Lanka in the system in return for promises on human-rights issues.
"We very much regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good faith ... We will, however, keep the door open for Sri Lanka to return to talks," the EU's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
The GSP+ system allows members lower tariffs in return for making commitments to enforce human rights. But in February, EU foreign ministers decided that Sri Lanka had not lived up to its promises, especially in its war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Ministers therefore proposed suspending Sri Lanka's GSP+ membership temporarily as of August 15.
However, the commission, the EU's executive, subsequently said that it would propose that the deadline be pushed back for six months if Colombo pledged to deal with 15 especially difficult human-rights questions in that period.
"The government of Sri Lanka was invited to respond in writing by July 1. As of today (July 5), and despite (our) best efforts to secure a different outcome, no official reply has been received from the authorities in Colombo," the commission statement said.
That leaves the commission "not in a position" to propose an extension, the statement said.
The move comes as relations between the EU and Sri Lanka are still strained by the bloody end of the Tamil war. In the closing stages of the conflict, the EU urged the Sri Lankan government to show restraint - calls which were widely interpreted in the country as expressing tacit sympathy for the rebels.
DPA
In 2009 Sri Lanka exported 187.2 billion rupees of apparels (1,629 million US dollars at an average exchange rate of 114.9 rupees to the US dollar) to the European Union in 2009 according to official data.
The Central Bank said in a statement last week that GSP benefits covered about 60 percent of such exports (977 million US dollars).
The European Union's executive on Monday closed the door on hopes to extend Sri Lanka's access to a preferential trading scheme, as officials said that Colombo had failed to respond to proposals on human rights.
The move means that Sri Lanka will have its membership of the EU's enhanced Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) suspended on August 15. The European Commission had offered to keep Sri Lanka in the system in return for promises on human-rights issues.
"We very much regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good faith ... We will, however, keep the door open for Sri Lanka to return to talks," the EU's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
The GSP+ system allows members lower tariffs in return for making commitments to enforce human rights. But in February, EU foreign ministers decided that Sri Lanka had not lived up to its promises, especially in its war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Ministers therefore proposed suspending Sri Lanka's GSP+ membership temporarily as of August 15.
However, the commission, the EU's executive, subsequently said that it would propose that the deadline be pushed back for six months if Colombo pledged to deal with 15 especially difficult human-rights questions in that period.
"The government of Sri Lanka was invited to respond in writing by July 1. As of today (July 5), and despite (our) best efforts to secure a different outcome, no official reply has been received from the authorities in Colombo," the commission statement said.
That leaves the commission "not in a position" to propose an extension, the statement said.
The move comes as relations between the EU and Sri Lanka are still strained by the bloody end of the Tamil war. In the closing stages of the conflict, the EU urged the Sri Lankan government to show restraint - calls which were widely interpreted in the country as expressing tacit sympathy for the rebels.
DPA
In 2009 Sri Lanka exported 187.2 billion rupees of apparels (1,629 million US dollars at an average exchange rate of 114.9 rupees to the US dollar) to the European Union in 2009 according to official data.
The Central Bank said in a statement last week that GSP benefits covered about 60 percent of such exports (977 million US dollars).
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