U.S. GSP to continue

Sri Lanka is to continue receiving a key trade benefit offered by the United States, the U.S Embassy in Colombo announced yesterday.

The Embassy said that a review on worker rights in Sri Lanka which is linked with the trade benefit has ended and a decision has been taken that the island will continue to be a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences also known as the U.S GSP.

The review on Sri Lanka was carried out after a petition was filed in 2008 alleging shortcomings in Sri Lanka’s recognition or worker rights.

“The closure of the GSP country practice review of Sri Lanka was based on the Sri Lankan government’s noteworthy efforts to address worker rights issues over the past few years. This welcome outcome to the review demonstrates that GSP remains an effective tool for engaging GSP beneficiary countries on worker rights.” The US Embassy quoted a U.S trade official as saying.

Under the U.S GSP program, up to 5,000 types of products from 128 beneficiary developing countries are eligible for duty-free importation into the United States.

U.S. imports from Sri Lanka under GSP totaled $135 million in 2011 and include tires, activated carbon, rubber gloves, plastic products, and kitchenware.

The Embassy said that over the course of the last few years, the government of Sri Lanka has taken significant steps to improve the worker rights environment in the country.

Among these steps are progress in initiating, investigating and resolving unfair labor practices cases, the establishment of trade union facilitation centers in each of the three largest Economic Processing Zones, improved procedures for conducting union certifications and enactment of legislation to increase the fines for labor practices violations.

“The Governments of the United States and Sri Lanka will continue to engage on worker rights issues in the newly established Labor Affairs Committee of the United States-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Council,” the Embassy said.