GSP+ removal woes continue
2013
Tamil Guardian 19 February 2013
2013
Tamil Guardian 19 February 2013
The Sri Lankan General Secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ & GSEU), Anton Marcus, announced that the loss the European Union’s Generalised System of Preference Plus (GSP+) concessions to Sri Lanka has forced over 186 garment factories to close.
The trade union leader said that the number of factories had reduced from 835 to 500, resulting in the number of employees in the industry falling from 1 million to 283,000.
The European Union suspended the GSP+ tariff in 2010, due to the Sri Lankan state’s failure to adhere with the fundamental human rights conventions that is expected of all recipients of the concession.
2006
Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees' Union (47 min. 2006)
Free Trade Zone Workers Union (48 min. Jesper Nordahl, 2006)
An interview, with Anton Marcus, General Secretary of the Free Trade Zone Workers Union, about the politics and impact of the FTZs, the establishment of the union and the policy and impact of WB, IMF and the polics initiated in Sri Lankan in 1977.
It is part of a series of works that investigates the political context and impact of Free Trade Zones and the Kotmale project that were initiated in the late seventies in Sri Lanka, as well as the resistance and alternatives to the policy WTO suggests for the country today.
