The United States continues to look forward to seeing Sri Lanka offer market access for its homegrown exports ranging from agricultural commodities, machinery and pharmaceuticals, as Sri Lanka continues to run a $ 2.27 billion trade surplus with the global superpower, US Embassy in Sri Lanka Economic Unit Chief Zachary Bailey said in a recently (31 March) published panel discussion on social media.

“We would also really like to see more US exports coming to Sri Lanka. We have run historical trade deficits with Sri Lanka. We produce very high quality products in America ranging from agricultural commodities, machinery, pharmaceuticals, could go on and on. We think there's a lot of potential in this market and that people are interested in these products,” Bailey said, in the video that was published on the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka YouTube channel.

While the AmCham Sri Lanka CEO Forum 2026 took place on 25 February, the discussion was posted on Tuesday (31 March). It is also important to note that the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (AmCham SL) is not a US Government entity, but a private, non-profit business association, though it works with the US Embassy in Colombo to promote bilateral trade.

“So again, we would like to see efforts to improve market access so people can enjoy these products and our commercial relationship can strengthen,” Bailey said.

Even amidst the uncertainty caused by the steep tariffs announced one year ago on April 2, 2025, the US continued to remain Sri Lanka’s largest export destination for the year, with which it had maintained a $ 2.27 billion trade surplus in 2025, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Apparel is consistently described as the single largest export category to the US, according to the Export Development Board (EDB) of Sri Lanka.

Though the tariffs were not immediately effective once announced in 2025, by December of 2025 the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Section 232 tariffs were fully implemented, which resulted in the tariff rate on Sri Lankan apparel exports increasing from 16.4% to 37.4% within the month.

In February of 2026 though the US Supreme Court overturned the tariff regime implemented under the powers of IEEPA, within days of the ruling, the US administration moved to implement Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a new global tariff set at 10%. With this move Sri Lanka’s effective tariff rate fell from 31.0% to 21.6%.

Though Sri Lanka’s total apparel exports in 2025 recorded only marginal declines in performance in August (-1.33%) and October (0.05%) in 2025, apparel exports recorded a broad-based cumulative decline in January and February this year, down by 6.91%, compared to the same time period last year, Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) data shows.

JAAF however stated that this decline is symbolic of a global trend in the decline of export volumes, rather than an isolated downturn.

Notably, apparel exports to the US declined by 3.53% in February alone, while Europe and the United Kingdom posted much more substantial reductions in export volumes, falling by -19.48% and -5.67% respectively, in year-on-year terms.