A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, January 19, 2017
SRI LANKA: IMPLEMENTATION OF 27 INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ONLY CRITERIA FOR GSP PLUS
The European Union issuing a press statement has reiterated that the
ratification and implementation of 27 international conventions signed
by a succession of Sri Lankan governments, are the only criteria on
which the Government of Sri Lanka’s application to rejoin the
Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) is assessed. These
conventions relate to international human rights, labour rights,
environmental standards and good governance. Benefitting from GSP+
requires the government to undertake to make further progress in
implementing the conventions and to cooperate with the EU to monitor
implementation and address shortcomings, say the statement.
The rest of the statement follows:
More generally, the European Union supports the leadership shown by this
government in committing to address historic and long-standing problems
that have caused conflict and negatively affected the lives and living
standards of all Sri Lankans. This includes the undertakings made, for
instance, in the resolution that Sri Lanka co-sponsored at the UN Human
Rights Council. The European Union is working with the government and
civil society organisations to structure our support and engagement to
positively contribute to the government’s national reconciliation and
good governance aims.
Background The EU is Sri Lanka’s biggest export market, accounting for
nearly one-third of Sri Lanka’s global exports. In 2015, total bilateral
trade amounted to €4.7 billion. The EU’s Special Incentive Arrangement
for Sustainable Development and Good Governance, GSP+, is part of EU’s
unilateral tariff preferences in favour of developing countries. The
GSP+ scheme is designed to help developing countries by granting full
removal of tariffs on over 66% of tariff lines covering a very wide
array of products including, for example, textiles and fisheries. The
GSP Regulation sets strict and clear criteria for granting GSP+.
Firstly, the applicant must meet economic criteria, i.e. it
must be a vulnerable developing country with a non-diversified economy
and low level of imports into the EU. Secondly, the country must have
ratified the 27 international conventions required under GSP+. It must
not have formulated reservations which are prohibited by these
conventions, and the most recent conclusions of the monitoring bodies
under those conventions must not identify any serious failure to
effectively implement them.
The new GSP Regulation provides for continuous monitoring of the GSP+
beneficiaries’ obligations. Once a country is granted GSP+, the EU must,
therefore, monitor that it abides by its commitments, namely to:
maintain ratification of the international conventions covered by GSP+;
ensure their effective implementation; comply with reporting
requirements; accept regular monitoring in accordance with the
conventions; and cooperate with the EU and provide all necessary
information.
There are currently 8 GSP+ beneficiaries: Armenia, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia,Pakistan, Paraguay and Peru.
Contacts:
Political, Trade and Communications Section
Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives
Tel: + 94 11 2674413-4