With the deadline for the withdrawal of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) agreement nearing, the apparel manufacturing and exporting sector is feeling the jitters and is now blaming the government for adopting an aggressive posture.
Earlier the Internal Trade Minister, GL Peiris had said that the matter will be taken to an international tribunal and added by saying that the EU was acting in a biased manner by holding out on human rights abuses in the country when the actual ground situation was different.
According to experts from the industry, the government should not have adopted an aggressive stance considering its human rights record and instead should have taken advantage of the two-month grace period given by the EU to sort out the matter.
The trade unions have also raised their concerns time and again over the matter of renewal of GSP+ and have advised the government to adopt a conciliatory stance in the interests of the over 275,000 workers employed in the industry.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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