COLOMBO - Investments by garment manufacturers in the formerly war-torn north of Sri Lanka, will be jeopardised if the country loses preferential trading privileges with the European Union (EU), according to the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) trade body.
A decade after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, the apparel industry remains the only large manufacturing sector to have set up large-scale operations in the north of the country where it employs more than 8,000 garment workers, according to JAAF.
The garment manufacturers' body says most of the exports from these factories go to Europe and qualify for the EU's Generalised Scheme of Preference Plus (GSP+) which is said to be worth over $US500 million to Sri Lanka.
