Sri Lanka needs GSP+ trade benefits - Patrick Basham interview

The Democracy Institute's, Patrick Basham argues why the EU would be wrong to carry through on its threat to withdraw Sri Lanka's valuable GSP+ trade benefits.

"Economic development is the true catalyst for Sri Lanka's political maturation. By eliminating trade benefits, the EU guarantees not only substantial problems for the Sri Lankan economy in general, but significant economic hardship for the country's poorest citizens. The greater the poverty, the harder it will be for a liberal democratic culture to take root in Sri Lanka."

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Sri+Lanka+GSP
• Sri+Lanka+trade
• Sri+Lanka+business
• Sri+Lanka+economy
• Democracy+Institute
• Patrick+Basham

[democracyforlanka]

The EU is acting absolutely in the interests of all Sri Lankans. It is the ordinary and poor Sri lankan who is being manipulated by this government's media, whose right to a decent standard of living is being plundered by the corruption and nepotism within the current regime and who are brutally silenced when they protest against the current abuse of political power. The EU recognises the evil of this kind of insidious authoritarianism and understand the likely tragic consequences.

[tmorgan1000]

Hiding behind same old 'colonialism caused the problem' rhetoric is not surprising since you also hide behind MIA's name.

It does not excuse the bad behavior of the Sri Lankan govt and never will.

[tmorgan1000]

It's not the SL govt paying him. He's another product of a Canadian right-wing think tank that has an anti-LTTE history, so what he says is part of a political agenda and not unbiased.

Patrick Basham served as the founding director of the Social Affairs Center at the Fraser Institute, Canada's leading free market think tank.

Conservatives sideline issues of genocide or racism. They happily buy the GoSL propaganda to maintain their 'capitalism will solve everything' view of the world.

[SLcrisis]

How much is the Sri Lankan govt paying your institute to spout such lies? GSP+ is a concession not a right. SL was the only country to have it in South Asia, it is morally wrong to give them an unfair advantage over other countries.

Hypocrisy at its finest. The ones who get affected do have a direct say in policies in Sri Lanka. It is a downright lie to say otherwise. The Sinhalese majority gave Mahinda, a war criminal guilty of genocide a landslide victory with over 70% of their votes.

[SLcrisis]

"economic terrorism"!!!

I nearly fell out my chair when I heard this! What do call the SL govt's actions over the last year? Interfering in internal affairs of a foreign country?

So you think its right that the EU sold wepaons to SL that were used to slaughter 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009. You think its right that 300,000 civlians were herded into concentration camps and subjected to rape, torture & execution. Do you think the world should look away like nothing is happening as in Rwanda?

[SLcrisis]

This was the same thing that was said by critics to the boycott South Africa movement. Of course the "young female" garments workers wll be affected for the worst.

However that is nothing compared to what the young female Tamil civilians are going through in the concentration camps being subjected to rape and torture by the army with impunity.

It has been a year now and still 100,000 Tamils remain in these camps. Ethnic cleansing of the Tamil North-East continues unabated.

[UniteSriLanka]

Sri Lanka wants to progress, to move away from the conflict that has ravaged the beautiful country for decades, and it needs the support of the international community to do so.

This will only be beneficial for all concerned.

Visit our Unite Sri Lanka blog for more on this...

[Mayaarulpragasam]

Any form of sanctions will hurt the people and turn them away from the anglo-saxons even more. Do not forget, you enslaved our people for over 100 years. Do not preach to us.

[boyLANKAN]

man my sri lanka suffered for 27yrs due LTTE terrorism, finally wen we eradicated terrorism( first country in the world to eradicate terrorism) hoping we can come up well. now the EU does not want us to devolope.

I HAVE A DREAM THAT ONE DAY THIS NATION ( sri lanka)WILL RISE UP AND LIVE OUT THE TRUE MEANING - GOD BLESS SRI LANKA

[himangp]

This is the ultimate truth. Trade sanctions are economic warfare. Economic terrorism. Only the poor and vulnerable will be affected.