Sri Lanka’s prime minister announced that he would be travelling to Brussels this weekend to engage in negotiations with the European Union to restore lost trade concessions.
“I am traveling to Brussels on Saturday to begin talks on restoring GSP plus,” Ranil Wickremesinghe told the World Export Development Forum in Colombo on Wednesday.
“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were given GSP plus around the same time but we gave it up,” he added, noting that “Bangladesh kept it and experienced fast export growth”.
Mr Wickremesinghe was reportedly furious over the conditions agreed to in order to regain the preferential trade deal, GSP plus, 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.
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasingha though reiterated his government’s dismissal of such conditions. “There have been no conditions put forward but we had to put some things right," he told local media.
"We have worked hard on it and by beginning of next year we are hoping to receive the GSP plus.”
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