Sri Lanka to recover GSP+

June 22, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will regain the GSP plus trade concession after the Human Rights Council sessions which are to be held in Geneva in September, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe said.

The European Union withdrew the concessions in 2010 expressing deep concern over alleged human rights violations said to have occurred during the last stage of Sri Lanka’s 30 year civil war.

“We earlier thought that the concession applies only to apparel industry but eventually the fish products were also included in the tax concessions,” Wickramasinghe said.

“Now we are working on getting back the GSP plus after the Human Rights Council sessions which are to be held in Geneva in September by solving the existing issues.”

He was speaking at a public gathering in Kalpitiya, Puttalam.

The European Union issued ‘red card’ in October last year imposing restrictions on export of fish products to EU after authorities failed to comply with international rules on illegal fishing.

The ‘red card’ issued against Sri Lanka can be revoked only through a ‘green card’. In November 2012, the union issued a ‘yellow card’ warning Sri Lanka.

The union charged Sri Lanka for authorizing huge vessels to fish in the Indian Ocean without marine GPS (Vessel Monitoring System).

“We signed an agreement with a company providing these services. We have already installed the necessary equipment in 165 fishing boats and are expecting to install another 400 in the coming weeks.” Wickramasinghe said.

Prime Minister also urged fishermen to allow the company to install ‘transponders’ inside their boats to speed up the process.

The European Union enforces international rules in order to eradicate illegal fishing, which is detrimental to the stocks and fishermen worldwide.

“The European Union said we have violated 57 procedures over the last two years. Currently we have successfully completed 36 processes out of these 57,”

“We are to hold discussions with the European Union in September and October and will be able to regain the fishing concession before the end of this year.” Wickramasinghe said.

By last year, Sri Lanka was the second biggest exporter of fresh and chilled swordfish and tuna to the European Union with 74 million Euros of exports in 2013.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lanka-to-recover-gsp-after-human-rights-council-sessions-in-geneva-pm/

Good times ahead for Hayleys MGT.N0000 and TJL.N0000

Thanks LSE TESS also get benefit I think if this goes right.

This news was a couple of weeks old. This is an expectation and not a certainty although it's highly likely.

First Guy wrote:This news was a couple of weeks old. This is an expectation and not a certainty although it's highly likely.

ඇමරිකානු ජී.එස්.පී. තීරුබදු සහනය නැවතත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට හිමිවී තිබෙනවා. ඇමරිකනු වාණිජ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ඊට අදාළ නියෝගයට ජනාධිපති බැරැක් ඔබාමා පසුගියදා ජූනි 26 වැනිදා අත්සන් තැබූ බවයි.

http://www.hirunews.lk/sinhala/business/112642/2017-%E0%B6%85%E0%B7%80%E0%B7%83%E0%B6%B1%E0%B7%8A%E0%B7%80%E0%B6%B1%E0%B6%AD%E0%B7%94%E0%B6%BB%E0%B7%94-gsp-%E0%B7%83%E0%B7%84%E0%B6%B1%E0%B6%BA-%E0%B6%B1%E0%B7%90%E0%B7%80%E0%B6%AD%E0%B6%AD%E0%B7%8A

LSE, one is talking about GSP and the other is talking about GSP+. Both are bit different.

GSP offers tarriff reduction while GSP+is an enhanced version which removes tariff completely on certain items.

Correct me if I am wrong but Sri Lanka has always been enjoying GSP status but it's the GSP+ status that was missing.

Some links to read about it
http://www.cbsl.gov.lk/pics_n_docs/02_prs/_docs/speeches/presentation_20091029e.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/development/generalised-scheme-of-preferences/index_en.htm

News items (old ones)
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2009/10/31/%E2%80%98losing-gsp-not-an-earth-shattering-disaster%E2%80%99/
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090823/FinancialTimes/ft10.html

July 3, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Department of Commerce says that the US President has restored US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) with effect from 29.06.2015 with retroactive respect including Sri Lanka.

A statement said that the US President signed into law HR 1295 on June 29, 2015 re-authorizing the US GSP Programme until 31 December 2017 providing preferential duty free entry into US market for nearly 5000 products from 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories, including Sri Lanka.

US has imported 178 million US dollars’ worth of goods in 2014 under the GSP programme from Sri Lanka demonstrating 12.5 percent increase compared to 2013.

The US Congressional authorization for the GSP Programme expired on 31 July 2013 and the reauthorization will be effective from 29 July 2015.

With the re-authorization of the USGSP Programme, the US importers are eligible to claim the import duty paid by them for the eligible products under the USGSP Programme during the lapse in GSP coverage from 31 July 2013 with retrospective effect.

Accordingly, Sri Lankan exporters gain duty free access for eligible products under the US GSP programme.

Sri Lanka exports pneumatic rubber tires, plastic based packing materials, rubber gloves, activated carbon, coir products, certain porcelain/china ware, rubber floor coverings and etc under the GSP programe.


July 3, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Department of Commerce says that the US President has restored US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) with effect from 29.06.2015 with retroactive respect including Sri Lanka.

A statement said that the US President signed into law HR 1295 on June 29, 2015 re-authorizing the US GSP Programme until 31 December 2017 providing preferential duty free entry into US market for nearly 5000 products from 122 designated beneficiary countries and territories, including Sri Lanka.

US has imported 178 million US dollars’ worth of goods in 2014 under the GSP programme from Sri Lanka demonstrating 12.5 percent increase compared to 2013.

The US Congressional authorization for the GSP Programme expired on 31 July 2013 and the reauthorization will be effective from 29 July 2015.

With the re-authorization of the USGSP Programme, the US importers are eligible to claim the import duty paid by them for the eligible products under the USGSP Programme during the lapse in GSP coverage from 31 July 2013 with retrospective effect.

Accordingly, Sri Lankan exporters gain duty free access for eligible products under the US GSP programme.

Sri Lanka exports pneumatic rubber tires, plastic based packing materials, rubber gloves, activated carbon, coir products, certain porcelain/china ware, rubber floor coverings and etc under the GSP programe.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/us-reauthorized-gsp-duty-free-entry-for-5000-products-from-122-countries-and-territories/#comment-369