- Negotiations
Sri Lanka has preferential and free trade agreements with India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Singapore and Israel. It is currently in the processing of upgrading its agreement with India to a much more comprehensive one.
Sri Lanka is also party to SAFTA, the agreement on a South Asia Free Trade Area, as well as BIMSTEC, which aims to hammer out a regional FTA.
last update: May 2012
Photo: Sri Lankan engineers’ association
24-Aug-2012
Sri Lanka has apparently informed Indian authorities it was not keen on having a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India, as it feared granting more Indian access to its markets would destroy that country’s domestic industry. However, it has made its own set of fresh demands to consider under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is under operation since March 2000.
24-Apr-2012
Sri Lanka and Israel have held their first bilateral consultation on enhancing trade ties, authorities said.
1-Apr-2012
The calls to boycott American goods and services in the wake of the recent resolution at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) have highlighted the fact that Sri Lanka’s export trade is heavily dependent on a narrow slew of countries.
10-Mar-2012
The companies from Sri Lanka are seeking for Azerbaijani partners for export development to Azerbaijan, a news report said. Economic Development Ministry of Azerbaijan reports that Sri Lankan companies are ready to supply fruits, spices, fabric and paints to the country.
4-Oct-2011
Xinhua
Sri Lanka is expected to delay the decision to sign a comprehensive trade agreement with India that would encourage bilateral trade, a top government official said on Tuesday.
29-Aug-2011
Sunday Times
Sri Lanka has agreed to import its entire basmati rice quota of 6,000 tonnes from Pakistan under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) through the private sector from 2012.
26-Jun-2011
’Moving forward’ on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Sri Lanka and Pakistan which also goes beyond only trade in goods outlined in the existing bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), into services and investment promotion, will boost trade between both countries, according to Seema Ilahi Baloch, High Commissioner for Pakistan in Sri Lanka.
15-Jun-2011
Sunday Times
A spokesman for the anti-CEPA group, Managing Director Multichemi Group Samantha Kumarasinghe said that CEPA is bound to cause serious harm to Sri Lanka. According to him the Indian authorities have consulted around 1000 Indian economists on CEPA. But in Sri Lanka’s case it was the opposite, he alleged.
5-Jun-2011
Given the strong economic, political and cultural ties shared by the two countries an FTA to further bolster bilateral trade had been a topic during a meeting between Japanese Ambassador Kunio Takahashi and Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.
13-Feb-2011
Sunday Times
The Sri Lankan government has broken an impasse over the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which has been dragging for several years, and decided to renegotiate some sections of the proposed agreement with India.
