UK urged to ask EU to remove preferential trade tariffs if Sri Lanka doesn’t cooperate with UN inves
Friday, 28 November 2014 00:19
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
London: British lawmakers have urged the UK Government to ask the European Union to remove the preferential trade tariffs for Sri Lanka if the Sri Lankan Government does not cooperate with the UN investigation and address human rights concerns.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in its Sixth Report of human rights work in 2013 has recommended that favourable trade concessions to the EU market should be removed from Sri Lanka if the Government of Sri Lanka continues to deny the UN’s OHCHR investigation team access into the country.
Sri Lanka was designated a country of concern for the fifth consecutive year in the FCO’s 2013 Report. The country is being investigated by the UN for alleged human rights abuses on both sides during the country’s civil war.
Chairman of the Committee, Sir Richard Ottaway MP, says: “Our Government must negotiate with EU partners to remove trade concessions from Sri Lanka if the Government of Sri Lanka continues to deny the UN investigating team access into the country.”
Despite the anti-Western rhetoric, the European Union remains Sri Lanka’s main export destination with trade flows between the two amounting to €3.5 billion and with a major trade surplus of €1.1 billion in Sri Lanka’s favour, the report notes.
Although the EU has withdrawn the Generalised System of Preferences plus (GSP+) status from Sri Lanka, the country still benefits from favourable trade concessions to the EU market through GSP, and the EU has no restrictive measures in force on Sri Lanka, the Foreign Affairs Committee report points out.
The Committee says given the time that has passed since the launch of the international inquiry, and the constraints placed on the OHCHR team, it believes that the UK Government should be ready to consider all possible options, including sanctions, to convince Sri Lanka to allow access.
“We recommend that the Government (UK) negotiates with its EU partners to remove GSP status from Sri Lanka, if the Government of Sri Lanka does not allow the OHCHR investigating team into the country and uphold the right of human right defenders to engage with the UN human rights system,” the Foreign Affairs Committee report said.
