Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha de Silva says that Sri Lanka has formally applied for the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) and that the country will see a “serious dilution of the benefits” from the trade arrangement if the UK leaves the EU.

Addressing a group of over 200 Sri Lankan British community leaders in London last evening, he spoke on why the Sri Lankan government believes the United Kingdom should ‘stay’ in the European Union. 

“I articulated the PM’s position that if UK leaves the EU that it will certainly have a significant negative impact on Sri Lankan exports to the EU,” de Silva wrote on his Facebook page. 

Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Rosy Senanayake also addressed the gathering.

The UK will hold a referendum on June 23 to decide if it will stay in or leave the European Union, a prospect dubbed ”Brexit”. The deputy minister said that Sri Lanka stands to lose if the latter happens.

“As a matter of fact we formally applied for GSP+ yesterday and if Brexit happens we will see a serious dilution of the benefits we will get from winning back GSP+ as almost 40% of our exports to the EU is in to the UK.” 

“So if UK is not a part of the EU we will lose the duty free benefit. True, if UK exits, then we could renegotiate a FTA with the UK, but they will have to do a whole series of FTAs with European nations and others before they get to us. That will certainly take a long time,” he said.

In fact, we don’t need any more disruptions in the global economy, he said, adding that the challenges we have to face would be easier to deal with in a more stable global environment. 

While it is each British person to decide, we have and will speak to ‘our community’ to let them know as a country we would like for UK to stay, de Silva added.

However, the deputy minister said that speaking to the Sri Lankan community he got mixed reactions with some for UK staying and some against.