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Tharaka Balasuriya the Chief Negotiator for China FTA

08 Aug 2021

  • Ministry of Trade appoints Foreign Affairs State Minister
  • China FTA process slow in order to avoid Singapore repeat 
BY Cassendra Doole The Chief Negotiator for the China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka will be State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena, speaking to The Morning Business, said. “We have appointed the State Minister of Foreign Affairs as the chief negotiator for the China FTA,” he said, adding that the appointment of a chief negotiator for the overall FTAs was still pending. The Morning Business attempted to contact the state minister for a comment but he was unavailable. However, in October last year, state minister Tharaka Balasuriya said that Sri Lankan authorities are reviewing the provisions of the proposed FTA with China to ensure it would not turn out to be “another Singapore FTA”.  Disregarding the opposition from professional associations and other entities, Sri Lanka entered into a FTA with Singapore in 2018 after a year and half’s worth of negotiations. Professionals and experts opposed this FTA on the premises that this agreement would endanger local jobs, as it would allow skilled labour and professionals from Singapore to enter while also opening the floodgates for the imports of nuclear waste and clinical waste, thereby converting Sri Lanka into a dumping ground for Singapore. However, the Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan recently said that the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement is an icon of the burgeoning economic ties between both countries. Similar concerns were raised with regard to the FTAs with China, especially when the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill came into force in Sri Lanka on 27 May 2021, establishing the Colombo Port City Special Economic Zone under a $ 1.4 billion deal which would in turn mean handing over 660 acres of Sri Lanka to Chinese entities. This bill too faced much opposition, especially based on the failed $ 209 million Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport Project of which $ 190 million was funded by high-interest Chinese-state loans, to the point where Forbes magazine dubbed it the “World’s emptiest international airport”.  Discussions on a FTA with China goes back to 2014, when Sri Lanka and China had six rounds of negotiations regarding a proposed free trade agreement. However, in 2017, the discussions ended abruptly owing to a number of disagreements on trade liberalisation, especially when China requested a 90% of the goods to be tariff free.  The longstanding relationship Sri Lanka has with China is known to be a controversial one – sparking public protest every now and then, the most recent being the Supreme Court hearing of the petitions challenging President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s plan to set up a panel to entice investment into the Chinese built Colombo port city. The petitions were from both individuals and corporates who are concerned about the constitutional integrity of this panel as well as the lack of proper regulators.

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