- Committee reviews benefits of existing FTAs, framework for future trade deals
- Cabinet to consider report in coming days
The Cabinet-appointed committee tasked with reviewing the effectiveness of Sri Lanka’s existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and the structure of future FTAs to be negotiated has submitted its report to the Cabinet Office.
The report, submitted the week before last, is scheduled to be taken up by the Cabinet of Ministers in the coming days.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security, and Co-operative Development Secretary K.A. Vimalenthirarajah, who chaired the committee, said that the committee had been tasked with studying Sri Lanka’s present FTAs and their benefits, as well as how the country should proceed with its future FTAs and how they needed to be structured.
Commenting on the current status of the work done by the committee, Vimalenthirarajah said: “The report has been submitted and it is now scheduled to be taken up by the Cabinet of Ministers.”
He further said that the committee had made several recommendations to the Cabinet in its report, but declined to disclose their details pending Cabinet approval.
The previous Government had engaged in a full-fledged drive to expand Sri Lanka’s portfolio of trade agreements, signing an FTA with Thailand and also commencing talks with China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh for the purpose of entering into possible trade agreements.
Sri Lanka currently has several FTAs and trade agreements, including the Indo-Sri Lanka FTA (ISFTA), Pakistan-Sri Lanka FTA (PSFTA), Singapore-Sri Lanka FTA (SSLFTA), and the most recent Sri Lanka-Thailand FTA (SLTFTA).
Other trade agreements include the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP), and the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which replaced its Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) scheme.
– By Shenal Fernando