COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka did not even manage to increase the revenues from apparel exports twofold from 2003 to 2015 without the European Union’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences plus tariff concession.
Responding to a comment made by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that Sri Lanka did not lose from the withdrawal of the GSP+, the Premier pointed out that due to losing the GSP+ concession, Sri Lanka only managed to increase its revenue from the export of ready-made garments from USD 2.5 billion in 2013 to USD 4.8 billion in 2015.
In comparison, Sri Lanka’s South Asian competitor in apparel exports, Bangladesh, who had obtained the GSP+, increased its revenue from USD 5.2 billion to USD 26 billion during the same period, the Prime Minister pointed out in a statement.
“Due to losing the GSP+ concession, we only managed to increase our revenue from USD 2500 million, to USD 4800 million – not even a twofold increase. Bangladesh on the other hand, increased their revenue from USD 5200 million to USD 26,600 million due to obtaining the GSP+. As a result, Bangladesh has no problem with their balance of payments,” the Prime Minister said.
Bangladesh earns sufficient export earnings in order to import cargo which they require, but the same cannot be said for Sri Lanka, as its exports are insufficient, the Premier said. “This is why we have requested for a loan from the IMF,” he added.
The European Commission on January 11 proposed that the GSP+ should be granted to Sri Lanka once again after withdrawing it in 2010 due to the poor human rights record of the country.
