The President of the European Council has backed the return of the GSP+ trade concessions for Sri Lanka, said Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Mr Wickremesinghe tweeted that Mr Tusk “greatly admired the sacrifices made by the government of Sri Lanka… to make Sri Lanka a democratic state, despite undergoing dictatorships, corruption and terror in the past”.
He went on to state that Mr Tusk “would give his fullest support to help Sri Lanka revive the GSP+ relief once more”.
Since Sri Lanka was stripped of the trade concessions in 2010, amidst human rights concerns on the island, it has spent years attempting to regain the GSP plus. Mr Wickremesinghe was reportedly furious over the conditions agreed to in order to regain the preferential trade deal, according to a Sunday Times report earlier this year. A document detailing 58 conditions outlined by the European Union allegedly included including the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the devolution of power under the new constitution, the return of private land in the North and the release of detainees.
There was no report of those issues being discussed in his conversation with Mr Tusk, though Mr Wickremesinghe said he had called Sri Lanka “an exemplary model for the entire region”.
He also extended to the European Council President an invitation to visit the island next year to “personally see the nation’s new development and democratisation process”.
“Mr Tusk was delighted by the invitation – as Sri Lanka is one of his favourite tour destinations -, sought out even by many members of the European Council – and gladly accepted the invitation”, tweeted Mr Wickremesinghe.
Meanwhile the Sri Lankan prime minister pledged to set up a government task force to ensure “illegal immigrants” would stop entering Europe from Sri Lanka.