Business forum on ‘Doing business with the EU using GSP+’

A status update by Department of Commerce
Industry expects early 2016 re-entry

 

The Shippers’ Academy Colombo (SAC) has organised a business forum on 8 April at The Kingsbury Hotel from 4 p.m. onwards to bring awareness to the industry of the latest status of Sri Lankan exports re-entering the European market at zero duty with the GSP+ with the ongoing dialogue with European Union (EU).
Sri Lanka enjoyed the GSP+ benefit from 15 July 2005 to 15 August 2010 for 7,200 export products to the EU market which has nearly 500 million consumers. The apparel industry was the number one beneficiary among other export products.
The decision to withdraw GSP+ from Sri Lanka was based on the findings of an exhaustive commission investigation launched in October 2008 and completed in October 2009.
Post-election 2015 the new regime in Sri Lanka has initiated dialogue to expedite the process to renew the facility with EU once again, which would give a huge boost to the local export industry.
The Director General of Commerce and his team will brief the trade on the following areas which will be followed by a Q& A session at the forum:

• History of GSP/GSP+
• Current status of the GSP+ application and ongoing dialogue     
• EU Thinking on granting of GSP+
• What would be the new scheme and the time frame?
• Rules of Origin and other challenges    
• What are the products that would most benefit?                   
• What is the status of the fisheries ban, will it impact?

Exporters, service providers to EU, banks, investors and others are requested to register for the forum, by contacting the Shippers’ Academy Colombo on tel: 011 3560844/0773820703: Fax: 011 2874065:
Email: enquiries@shippersacademy.lk. For online registration visit www.shippersacademy.lk.