Veteran Trade unionist blames ministers for wrong statements

19 Jul '10

2 min read

Last week, veteran government associated trade unionist, fired the government for its lackadaisical attitude, which resulted in the country losing out the GSP+ concession. He was speaking during a panel discussion in Colombo.

The discussion was concentrated on the impact of the loss of European Union (EU) GSP+ on the Sri Lankan economy and how Sri Lanka can manage in the future, without trade concessions, when it migrates to an upper-income bracket level.

As per Leslie Devendra, instead of unreliable statements by various Sri Lankan Ministers at various forums, the government should have involved them in discussions, as the nation's labour relations are much higher than most of the nations across the globe, and the only areas, which had to be negotiated was governance and human rights.

Devendra further stated that, owing to different and wrong statements made by the ministers, the situation worsened. A minister saying that, Sri Lanka could do without GSP+ concession was one of the few statements that ministers had made, which have worsened the situation.

Compromises and positive results would have been the outcome, had the government roped in workers and industry on the discussion table.

Devendra avers that, Sri Lankan government should learn from this situation and get their actions ready for the US GSP, wherein a public hearing will commence next month. More so, if there are measures for implementing worker's rights, it would help further in the US GSP discussions.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India