GSP+ withdrawal has hit Sri Lanka factories - Daily Mirror

by admin
Jan 25, 2013

A number of factories in Sri Lanka have closed down after the withdrawal of the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) mechanism, which made export to EU members cheaper for Sri Lanka.

The Organising Secretary of the Inter Company Employees Union B.I. Abdeen told the Daily Mirror that 2000 jobs of direct employment had been lost due to the closure of two factories on January 2, 2013 alone.

“Crystal Sweater Lanka Pvt. Ltd is one such company that ceased its operations on January 2, after a public announcement in newspapers.

“The company has cited the inability to compete with countries such as Bangladesh that enjoy the GSP Plus benefit to access markets in Europe.

“This is a company with 1100 employees. They put up a newspaper advertisement on December 22. They cannot compete with countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh enjoying preferential duty free access to Europe,” he said.

The EU introduced the GSP+ system to encourage good governance and strengthen democracy.

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