‘SL need to increase share in traditional apparel markets’

“We must not only tap emerging markets but work towards increasing our share in our traditional markets on a commercial basis. A concerted effort to increase our market share in the traditional market is a major challenge. We are ethical and are going green that is the path of sustainability in this market.

Simultaneously, a framework for penetrating into other emerging markets particularly China and India needs to be pursued aggressively,”said A .Sukumaran Former Chairman of Joint Apparel Association Forum in Sri Lanka. He expressed these views addressing the 9th Annual General Meeting of the Joint Apparel Association Forum held in Colombo recently.

Sri Lanka has not got any preferential treatment while our competitors such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam are continuing to negotiate preferential trading arrangements from major markets, he said.

Under the new GSP regulation, EU authorities have tightened beneficiary country obligations and these countries are now expected to undertake binding commitments to report to monitoring bodies on conventions, 2 year reviews and reporting to the EU Parliament and Council by the commission, and the burden of proof in the event of an investigation is now passed to the beneficiary countries.

A conscious study of these new dimensions of requirements/obligations needs to be done in deciding our course of action on GSP+, towards obtaining a positive response from the EU.

(SP)