Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government plans to replace the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences in its trade negotiations with Sri Lanka with provisions to incentivise good governance and the adherence to international human rights obligations.

The United Kingdom is replicating the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), which will enter into force on 1^st January 2021.

The scheme will include an arrangement that replicates the EU’s GSP+ tier, called the “Enhanced Framework”, and Sri Lanka will automatically be granted trade preferences under this.

The “Enhanced Framework” will continue to be subject to conditions, similar to those under the EU’s GSP+, for all beneficiaries. These include ratifying and effectively implementing the same international conventions and complying with those conventions’ reporting and monitoring requirements.