The 12th round of talks between Sri Lanka and India, which was suspended since 2018, was held in Colombo from October 30 to November 1. Sri Lanka Latest News
The Sri Lankan government’s vision is to integrate with the largest economies in Asia and East Asia for export diversification by protecting and promoting the country’s main export markets. It is the expectation of the current government to connect with the main parties through the global value chain in order to raise the standard of living of the people by raising the economy of this country.
The economic partnership between Sri Lanka and India is conducive to the economic growth of both countries, both in terms of trade and investment. With the aim of comprehensively improving bilateral trade and investment in priority areas, the heads of state of both the countries agreed to resume negotiations on ETCA, which had been suspended since 2018, during the visit of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to India on 29 July 2023.
Accordingly, a delegation of 19 Indian officials led by Mr. Ananth Swaroop, Chief Negotiator of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Joint Secretary of the Department of Commerce, came to Sri Lanka and discussed extensively about this comprehensive agreement.
The Sri Lanka Negotiating Team representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Food Security, Ministry of Industry, Department of Trade and Investment Policy, Attorney General’s Department, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Board of Investment, Chief Negotiator of the Presidential Secretariat K. .J. The negotiations were led by the National Trade Negotiations Committee (NTNC), headed by Mr. Weerasinghe.
The discussions covered the areas of goods, services, rules of origin, trade remedies, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, legal and institutional matters. Also, a special session was held to discuss issues related to the implementation of the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA).
