President Maithripala Sirisena ensures Sri Lanka will regain the Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade concession that was suspended during the tenure of the United People’s Freedom Alliance led government in a week.

Current government has overcome all obstacles faced when developing the country, he noted.

President Sirisena said during a short time frame the government eliminated obstacles faced when building the country adding the international community is now considered a friend.

President stated that he has been informed that the GSP+ trade concession, that is vital to the development especially for industries and international trade ties, will be restored within a week.

The GSP plus trade concessions were withdrawn from Sri Lanka after former government failed to meet certain conditions on human rights issues in 2010.

EU’s GSP+ tariff concession allowed Sri Lanka to sell over 7,000 products to EU countries tax-free with the garment industry benefiting the most. However the EU citing Sri Lanka’s alleged human rights violations suspended the GSP+ tariff concession.

The present government submitted the formal application to regain the GSP trade concession to European Union officials in June last year.