Indian trade delegation to visit Sri Lanka
Economic Times, India
Indian trade delegation to visit Sri Lanka
PTI
23 March 2007
COLOMBO: An Indian trade delegation is due in Colombo next week for talks aimed at firming up bilateral trade which will include professional services, investments and trade in goods, officials said.
Both countries are exploring avenues to deepen the existing trade pact under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or CEPA.
The two sides also want to trim their negative or sensitive lists, with Sri Lanka identifying 57 industrial goods like fish, some spices and fruits that it can free up.
"We are reviewing the existing negative lists and want to reduce the size as far as possible. We are still finalising the list with the Treasury," Saman Udagedara, Acting Director of Commerce said.
This would include items not produced locally or those used as raw materials or inputs in Sri Lankan industries. "Sri Lanka has identified 57 items that it can remove from its negative list, while India has agreed to consider 118 tariff lines, which constitutes 57 industrial items and 61 apparel items."
The Indo-Lanka trade deal in operation has had its share of controversy, with New Delhi raising trade barriers on some goods like vegetable oil and spices despite a duty free arrangement, due to surging local exports.
The trade dispute blocked CEPA negotiations last year and completely stopped local exports of vanaspati oil, until early this year.
