Limited export base restrains Sri Lanka from fully benefiting from EU’s GSP+ scheme
Colombo, Oct. 15 (Daily Mirror) - Sri Lanka’s limited export diversification and narrow production base have constrained the country from fully capitalizing on the benefits of the GSP+ (Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus) trade facility with the European Union (EU), Daily Mirror learns.
Under the current GSP + scheme, the EU authorities have granted access for Sri Lankan products under around 6000 tariff lines, but only 54 of them are used at the moment. Sri Lanka has been unable to maximize the use of most of the tariff lines for exports since its production base is limited at the moment.
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. Currently, Sri Lanka exports items such as apparel products, rubber products and tea to the markets in the region. The markets are mainly based in countries such as Germany and France.
However, there is lack of focus on other EU member states such as Slovenia though the uniform conditions apply across the region for exports under the GSP + facility.
