bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

Sri Lanka

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


Sri Lanka eyes FTA with Indonesia, in continued engagement with ASEAN
Sri Lanka and Indonesia had agreed to study a free trade agreement during a state visit of President Joko Widodo to Colombo.
Singapore and Sri Lanka sign free trade agreement
Sri Lanka and Singapore signed a Free Trade Agreement deepening the economic ties and facilitating greater trade flows between the two countries.
Serious malpractices in the negotiation process of the free trade agreements
Professional National Front, an alliance of the professional associations and trade unions have observed serious violations of the law, best practices and hence the good governance in the negotiation process of the free trade Agreement. They took steps to inform all ministers of the cabinet including the president, in writing but their plea has not been heard.
Don’t sign FTA with Singapore: Professionals tell Govt.
Ahead of the Sri Lankan government’s move to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore, a collective of professional movements have expressed grave concerns and stated that there were serious violations of the law, best practices and good governance in the negotiation process of the agreement.
Cabinet approves proposed FTA with Singapore
The Sri Lankan Cabinet has approved the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to be signed with Singapore
SL-Singapore FTA first draft forwarded for Cabinet approval
Unlike trade negotiations with behemoths such as India and China, politically-backed protests have not taken place against the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA negotiations.
Malaysia and Sri Lanka to speed up FTA talks
President Maithripala Sirisena and the visiting Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak agreed to expand trade relations between the 2 countries further.
Next round of ETCA negotiations set for next month
The key objective of ETCA is to resolve the implementation issues on the existing free trade agreement with India.
Australia, Sri Lanka sign trade and investment framework agreement
The arrangement will establish regular senior officials’ talks to facilitate trade and investment.
Taking a closer look at ETCA
If one analyses the costs and benefits then it isn’t that difficult to realize that ETCA is a decision by one country and the other is just obeying.