USTR closes GSP worker rights review of Sri Lanka
United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said USTR has closed the
Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) country practice review on
worker rights in Sri Lanka without any change to Sri Lanka’s GSP trade
benefits.
Ambassador Kirk said, “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.”
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 labour 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 labour practices violations. 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.
Under the GSP programme, up to 5,000 types of products from 128
beneficiary developing countries are eligible for duty-free importation
into the United
States. In 2011, the total value of imports that entered the United
States duty-free under GSP was $18.5 billion. U.S. imports from Sri
Lanka under GSP totaled $135 million in 2011 and include tires,
activated carbon, rubber gloves, plastic products, and kitchenware.
As part of the annual GSP review, an inter-agency US government
committee led by USTR receives and considers petitions seeking to
withdraw or limit a country’s eligibility for GSP tariff benefits based
on that country’s compliance with statutory eligibility criteria. One
such criterion is whether a beneficiary country “has not taken or is not
taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights to
workers in the country.” |