A deal is a deal

The European Union's decision, in February, to withdraw Sri Lanka's preferential trading access to its market came as little surprise. Domestic reaction ranged from anger and feigned indifference within the government to despair and resignation on the part of business and labour. The timing of the announcement, after an acrimonious presidential contest whose results were disputed by the opposition, and in the run-up to the 8 April parliamentary election, was itself seized upon as evidence of Western bias and sabotage, or confirmation of diplomatic and economic mismanagement, depending on one's political loyalties.

Under what is known as the EU's Generalised System of Preferences Plus, commonly referred to as GSP+, duty-free access (currently on more than 6300 product classifications) was extended to a handful of developing countries with poorly diversified economies shortly after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka was eligible on all counts. The zero-duty concession has since been of enormous competitive advantage, covering as it does 90 percent of the island's exports to the EU, mainly readymade garments but also rubber goods, machinery, frozen fish, precious stones and bulk tea. Shortly before the 26 January presidential poll, prominent leaders of the opposition claimed that only the government's defeat would secure extension of the GSP+ and safeguard the export earnings and employment that hinge on it. The EU's studied silence on the transparent politicking only further infuriated the Colombo government.