The Sri Lankan government will get a formal indication of where its GSP plus application process is heading, from the EU commission within this month.
The EU parliamentary delegation which undertook a visit to the island last week disclosed that an official communication from Brussels will be received by the government shortly, adding that they were pleased with some of the changes the new government has brought in so far to meet the GSP plus criteria.
However, the head of delegation, Green Member of European Parliament Jean Lambert said, their broad message is, ‘the trend is good’ but ‘more needs to be done’. She said, it was premature to say if Sri Lanka will get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer at this stage.
Explaining the process, the head of delegation Ms. Lambert said, upon return they are required to file a report of their assessment on the ground situation, to the EU parliament. It will help coin their final decision on the renewal of GSP plus concessions, expected somewhere before May 12 next year. She said, the entire application process for Sri Lanka will be concluded and the government will be notified of their final decision by May 12 at the latest.
The technical assessment to renew the trade concessions has already taken place. The application for the preferential trade concessions was submitted by the government in July 2016. It has now been referred to the EU Commission for assessment.
The EU commission will look at the criteria and assess what has been done and what needs to be done to meet the GSP plus criteria. There will be a very formal indication to the government in November, about the trend (where the things are moving), the Head of EU delegation in Colombo Tung Lai Margue said.
The Commission will come up with a set of recommendations of what needs to be done in January 2017, which report will then go to the council of ministers and subsequently to the EU parliament. The Ambassador said, at this level there will still be indepth discussions among different organs of the EU.
He said, the process can be rather short, like two months. But, an additional two months can be requested by the parliament or the council for clarifications. “At the very latest, on May 12, there will be a decision, either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Explaining further, the visiting parliamentarian Ms.Lambert said, this is not a trade concession very simply decided from government to government.
The EU has pointed out outstanding concerns about certain issues including the new legislation replacing PTA, whether it will be in accordance with international conventions. Uncorroborated confessions leading to criminal conviction and the time to grant access to a lawyer had been a major highlight of the discussions conducted by the visiting parliamentarians. Under reconciliation they have discussed the return of lands, reparation in case of failure to return, transition to civilian administration as well as gender based violence, gender equality, women headed households and livelihood issues, among other things.
Responding to allegations, Ms.Lambert said, the GSP plus criteria is not an arbitrary standard, that has been enforced upon Sri Lanka at the eleventh hour. ‘Let’s be very clear on that. Our evaluation applies to all countries.’
On the need to tie trade concessions with human rights, she said, the framework for evaluation has changed for all the countries who are keen to apply for GSP plus concessions. “We now have a common system and a regular time period. It is much more transparent. Now, everyone is clear what involves the evaluation, how they will be engaged, etc.”
“The basic principle is, there can’t be a major failure at the time of the assessment,” the EU Ambassador Margue said. Unlike in the past, there is a very stringent monitoring mechanism, with joint working groups active on a yearly basis. However, there are no regional comparisons made during evaluations. ‘It is not a competition, you compete with your own standards.’
Nineteen of the 27 UN conventions that need to be complied with, to qualify for GSP plus concessions by the EU are human rights conventions, while six cover labour rights and two are environmental conventions.
The overall judgment on a country will be made on whether there are serious shortcomings in any of the 27 conventions and not by specific issues. The impact on people will more or less be the yardstick.
For example if, ‘office on the missing’ is set up soon, people from all communities will start getting answers that they had been searching for, then people will trust that change is really happening.
Ms.Lambert added, the constitutional changes cannot happen overnight but they hope the proposed changes would be welcome by all the people of Sri Lanka.
Asked if Sri Lanka will be judged alongside other countries on the renewal of GSP plus, the visiting EU delegates said, ‘our understanding is, Sri Lanka will not be in a package with other countries, this will be an application only for SL.’
“If the commission recommends it should go ahead we could take it into the sub groups in parliament and then to the International Trade Committee and finally to a vote in the EU parliament.”
The four member EU delegations comprised Ms Ulrike Muller, from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (Denmark), Thomas Mann, committee on Employment and Social Affairs (Denmark) and Sajjad Karim, Chair of the South Asia Monitoring Group (UK) and Ms.Lambert.
During their four days of official engagements from Monday to Thursday, the delegates met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, the chief Ministers of the Northern and Eastern provinces and the civil society, among others. There was a visit to the Eastern Province to inspect EU funded projects as well.
This EU mission will most likely be the only mission prior to the final word on GSP plus concessions next year, an official at the EU mission said. The next yearly mission from the EU is expected to take place by mid 2017.