RFI - Minister battles for EU trade concessions but human rights under spotlight

Minister battles for EU trade concessions but human rights under spotlight

by Tony Cross

Article published on the 2008-06-24 Latest update 2008-08-03 10:38 TU

GL Peiris
(Photo: Tony Cross/RFI)

Up to 100,000 jobs depend on the European Union extending the so-called GSP+ trade concessions to Sri Lanka, according to the country's International Trade Minister, GL Peiris, who is on a visit to Paris this week. But the deal depends on Europe approving the country's human rights record and some EU members are critical of the government's performance.

Sri Lanka is among a number of Asian countries which have benefitted from the Generalised System of Preferences, known as GSP+, for several years.

This means that Brussels drops quota restrictions and duty on imports from developing countries but those countries must fulfil so-called "good governance" conditions on issues such as sustainable development and human rights.

For Sri Lanka, as with Bangladesh and India, the key sector is textiles, which were protected by the Multi-Fibre Agreement until 2005 and have since been subject to GSP+.

Peiris believes that "at least 100,000 jobs" depend on textiles, "mostly in the rural areas of Sri Lanka".

"Many of the people who work in these garment factories are women, who have become the breadwinners of their families," he adds.

But, while he is confident that employment conditions come up to the EU's required standards, Peiris may face criticism of the government's conduct in the decades-long war with the Tamil separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE.

A coalition of Sri Lankan NGOs successfully opposed the country's reelection to the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the government of failing to prevent disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture.

New York-based Human Rights Watch is among many groups that accuse defectors from the LTTE who now collaborate with the government of abducting children to become soldiers.

Peiris says that the government was right to form an alliance with the group, one of whose factions, led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as Pillayan, recently won elections in the Eastern Province.

“If European history adds up to anything at all, it indicates the importance of drawing into the democratic mainstream people who have lived by the sword earlier," Peiris says.

Peiris was chief government negotiator in talks with the LTTE, which broke down in 2006.