Sri Lanka
The President of the Sri Lanka Nepal Business Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka said that Nepal had approached Sri Lanka about entering into a free trade agreement.
The President of the Sri Lanka Nepal Business Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) said that Nepal had approached Sri Lanka about entering into a free trade agreement.
The health minister from Tamil Nadu, who is running a relentless battle against tobacco use, has proposed that all types of tobacco products should be placed in the negative list of the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the summit conference of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to be held in New Delhi on November 13. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Concerns are growing that an economic pact between India and Sri Lanka has been indefinitely put off.
Inadequate regulatory and monitoring measures, say local businesses, allowed corruption into the Indo-Lanka FTA implementation and allowed unscrupulous investors to violate local laws and benefit from the FTA.
This article is written in recognizing the numerous opinions floating around in Sri Lanka in respect of the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India. Most of the public discussions and paper articles on CEPA, which we see today, are either based on personal or political sentiments or absolute analysis of numerical figures. The whole purpose of this article is to give a holistic and comparative analysis based on facts and figures explaining the current status of the FTA with India.
Sparks flew in the Sri Lankan parliament as supporters and critics clashed over the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India.
The political parties debated the pros and cons of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Parliament yesterday with the JVP and its breakaway group which is now called the National Freedom Front (NFF) asking the government to scrap it.
Bangladesh has decided to sign bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) with three major South Asian trading partners - India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - in view of the failure of multilateral trading arrangements to serve the country’s interests.
The government will finally take a decision in a meeting today on signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with its neighbouring trading partners India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
It would have almost happened. President Rajapaksa and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were slated to sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries sometime during the SAARC summit at the beginning of next month. Fortunately wiser counsel prevailed, if one might employ a rather weathered phrase.
An India-Sri Lanka trade and investment agreement billed as a landmark is being delayed, ostensibly because the island nation’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, an avowed Sinhala nationalist, doesn’t want to be seen as authoring such a close partnership with New Delhi, diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
A group of eminent Sri Lankan businesses went public this week objecting to the signing of the Indo-Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The local businesses are questioning the need for a CEPA agreement and are objecting to the lack of transparency in the process.
Growth of exports to Thailand and Singapore has slowed after India signed bilateral duty-free agreements with these countries. But a similar pact with Sri Lanka has improved the growth in India’s exports to the island nation.
A leading Sri Lankan trade body has allayed fears that Indians would take over the jobs on offer in the island nation following the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Sri Lanka.
Some of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) the country has got into in recent years have resulted in unintended adverse consequences, primarily because of non-application of mind at the time of negotiations and signing of the agreement as also lackadaisical enforcement of rules subsequently.
The US-Sri Lanka TIFA Council discussed issues affecting US exports, such as Sri Lanka’s agricultural biotechnology policies, import tariffs, intellectual property rights protection, and transparency in government procurement.
The second round of negotiations between Srilanka and Pakistan on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) starts in Islamabad today (Tuesday).
Talks for an agreement on enhanced market access for service sectors between India and Sri Lanka are at an advanced stage and are likely to be concluded by the month-end.
