The European Union’s Foreign and Trade Ministers Council has approved Sri Lanka’s application to regain the Generalised System of Preference Plus (GSP +) trade concession, a short while ago.
The Government Information Department stated that this had been the last hurdle for the approval process.
In a Twitter post, deputy foreign minister Dr Harsha de Silva also confirmed the news and added: “It’s now done! Effective in less than 2 weeks.”
President Maithripala Sirisena also took to twitter to announce the decision and commend the hard work done to achieve it.
“Our exports to EU will be getting the GSP+ tax benefits within this month. Clear vision, sound policies and hard work pays off,” he wrote.
Last month, the EU Parliament had voted to defeat a resolution presented to deny granting the GSP+ tariff concession to Sri Lanka.
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 April 28.
