Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha de Silva says that the European Union (EU) has still not officially granted GSP Plus to Sri Lanka, but that they have now managed to clear the “biggest hurdle” in their path to regain the trade concession. 

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo today (28) to brief media regarding yesterday’s vote in the EU Parliament defeating a resolution to deny granting the GSP+ tariff concession to Sri Lanka, he stated that what comes next is the approval of the EU’s Council of Ministers. 

He stated that there is no reason for the Council of Ministers to change a proposal which received an overwhelming majority of votes. 

“We don’t see any problem regarding this in the future. However, it is true we have not still gotten it (GSP+) to the hand. But we have cleared the biggest hurdle,” de Silva said. 

Sri Lanka won the vote in Brussels after 436 MEPs voted against, 119 voted in favor and 22 abstained for the motion to deny GSP plus for Sri Lanka, when the vote was taken up at the plenary session held on Thursday (27).  

Responding to questions from journalists, the deputy minister said that currently Sri Lanka’s exports to the EU are very limited but there is massive scope for diversification of the country’s “export basket”.  
  
He stated that Sri Lanka’s exports have continued to flounder but this is the turning point. “We expect this to turn the tide around. This will be a significant turning point in the falling GDP.”   

Harsha stated that Sri Lanka will be granted Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for only another 3-4 years maximum and that, however this has to be used as the foundation to sign a free trade agreement with the EU.