Tougher time ahead for Sri Lanka in securing GSP+

• Sri Lanka risks losing US$1.23 billion in EU exports if GSP+ revoked
• Current GSP+ facility will expire at the end of next year  
• Facility still underutilised  
• It remained Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner in 2023  

By Kelum Bandara  

In the wake of the government bracing for dealing with the fallout of the U.S. tariffs, it will have a tougher time ahead in securing the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), a trade facility to secure market access to the markets in the European Union (EU) because of conditions for compliance with 27 international conventions and new conventions to be added in the future.  

In a brief interaction with a select group of journalists on the sidelines of a roundtable discussion organised by Pathfinder Foundation, EU Ambassador Carmen Moreno said the lack of compliance and the area in which it happened had been published online for the benefit of the beneficiary countries including Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is one of eight countries enjoying this benefit in exporting to the markets in the region.  

The EU is a region with 27 countries and 450 million consumers. It remained Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner in 2023. The trade volume amounted to 3.84 billion Euros – 2.56 billion Euros exports and 1.28 billion Euros imports. Sri Lanka was offered the GSP+ facility in 2005 after the Tsunami disaster, to export its products to the markets in the EU region under 6,000 tariff lines.  

“The European Union is a transparent entity. We send a report which marks the lack of compliance, in which conventions. This is sent to Parliament. So it’s public knowledge,” she said.  
She said that the EU had said repeatedly that it wants a government that engages, that starts a conversation, that provides information.  

“If they haven’t done things, why? Where are the obstacles? What is the roadmap for doing that? This is the kind of engagement we are looking for, not for perfection, not for everything solved today.  

Asked whether there is any lack of commitment on the part of the government, she replied, “It’s not up to me to see. It’s up to the monitoring mission that will be arriving in three weeks. I don’t do the monitoring.”