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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 7822905" data-attributes="member: 92282">EU to cut S.Lanka's trade benefits over human rightsThe European Union decided Monday to withdraw trade concessions in  August granted to Sri Lanka after the government failed to make a  written commitment to improve its human rights record.Sri Lanka  will "temporarily" lose its preferential access to the EU market from  August 15 after it missed a July 1 deadline to deliver the pledge, the  EU said in a statement. The EU had offered to delay its action by  six months in exchange for the written assurances."We very much  regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good  faith and in line with the EU commitment to a global human rights  agenda," EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement."We  will however keep the door open for Sri Lanka to return to talks," she  said.The GSP+ scheme gives 16 poor nations preferential access to  the vast European market in return for following strict commitments on a  variety of social and rights issues.Sri Lanka's hawkish  government has faced almost constant criticism in the past several years  over the way it conducted a war against Tamil Tiger separatist rebels  who were finally defeated in May 2009.Government forces have been  accused of a host of rights violations including the indiscriminate  killing of thousands of Tamil civilians, the murder of aid workers and  the execution of surrendering rebels.In a newspaper interview  last week, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse shrugged off the EU  threat to withdraw the trade benefits.Asked about the risk of  losing trade concessions worth an estimated 150 million dollars a year  because of his resistance to EU pressure, Rajapakse told the Times of  India: "I am not bothered.""If the EU doesn't want to give it,  let them keep it. I don't want it. We have gone and explained what we  have done."The island's clothing industry is the main beneficiary  of trade benefits, using the concessions to sell to high street  retailers in Europe.<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iixjiA1ILTY8G2BPVcoBU3BePW6w" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.google.com/hostednews/img/afp_logo.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></blockquote>

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