Deputy Minister Harsha de Silva hit out at former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Nalaka Godahewa for attempting to mislead the public on the US USP facility.
"Nalaka Godahewa, currently on bail for alleged fraud, is desperately attempting to fool people by confusing them to believe that we lost GSP+. I guess if one can commit fraud (multiple cases including Colombo Land, Krish deal etc and as Chairman of SEC handing out LKR 5m to Namal Rajapaksa youth program and lied saying it was for a awareness program for stock brokers or something like that) then this is a piece of cake," de Silva hit out at Godahewa in a Facebook post on Saturday.
"I say this because he is intelligent enough to know the difference between GSP to the US that lapsed to 120 countries and the GSP+ that only 9 countries in world enjoy which give duty free access to 28 EU countries," he added.
The Deputy Minister also said, "Anyone will easily see that with US GSP going away all countries are once again at the SAME level of competition as BEFORE. All what has happened is that the entire cost structure has moved up about 3 to 3.5%.
There is NO particular disadvantage for Sri Lanka or any particular advantage for any other country. All what happens is all products that came in using GSP to the US will be a little bit more expensive. In fact, of the USD 2,800m we exported to the US we only had USD 173m or 6.2% go under GSP because by and large apparels were not eligible.
The GSP+ to EU, which we got mid 2017 for strengthening democracy by removing the autocratic and racist regime that Dr Godahewa is working so hard to bring back, is a different story altogether. There we and other 8 countries have a SPECIFIC ADVANTAGE of between 10% to 20% to the EU. That is hugely more beneficial to us than the GSP. We have NOT LOST that. Also, as a matter of fact US does not have a GSP+ concession."
