Indo-Lanka bilateral trade on a steady rise
[Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9.45 GMT]   

All indications are that bi-lateral trade between India that has been valued at US $ 2462.28 million in 2006-07 would further increase substantially in the coming years, said Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion of Sri Lanka on his return to Sri Lanka after participating in the South Asian Finance Ministers meeting, where he represented President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister.  

Bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka has increased from US $ 1497 million in 2004-05 to US $ 2590 million in 2005-06 and is valued at US $ 2462.28 million in 2006-07,

Dr. Amunugama said that from Sri Lanka’s point of view India is now the major trading partner with Sri Lanka, with almost 15% - 20% of total Sri Lankan imports accounted for by India. Importantly India accounts for major Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka, with an investment of US $ 400-500 million. India is also the fourth largest investor in Sri Lanka.

After Dr. Amunugama’s meeting with Shri Kamal Nath, India’s Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) announced that India has already agreed to provide the Sri Lankan garment industry a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) of 3 million pieces of garments without any condition of sourcing of fabrics and port restrictions. Further cooperation between the two countries will include bilateral cooperation agreement (MOU) on product, quality, certification and testing that has been signed between Sri Lankan Standards Institute and Bureau of Indian Standards. This is expected to benefit both the countries in areas related to standardization, quality and certification of products, the PIB said.

Minister Kamal Nath has expressed hope that the outstanding issues relating to the operationalisation of TRQ of vegetable oil (vanaspati) including bakery shortening and margarine and import of marble and copper from Sri Lanka to India would be negotiated soon to further increase the Indo-Sri Lankan bilateral trade.

Minister Amunugama said he was happy at the continued improvement of trade relations between India and Sri Lanka because of the long connections between the two countries. He had told the Indian Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaran and other South Asian Finance Ministers that these good relations were the beneficial effect of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka, and that the best way for South Asian cooperation would be through such FTAs.

He had said that Sri Lanka wished to be seen as a trend-setter in FTAs in the region, having FTAs with both India and Pakistan, and that Sri Lanka would also look forward to being a bridge in trade relations with China.

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Last Updated Date: September 19, 2007 - 9.45 GMT