Tea and apparel, the island's main agricultural and industrial exports, had faced quota restrictions under the Indo-Lanka free trade agreement signed a decade ago which raised doubts about the trade deal among the island's business community.

"With regard to the quotas, they have been liberalized consistently in a way that Sri Lanka is allowed to self-administer them and they seem to have begun to have a positive impact as can be seen in a 136 percent growth in the export of tea and about 35 percent increase in the export of garments in 2009, both items where quotas exist," the Deputy High Commissioner said.

"This is happening in a year when there has been an overall decline of 21.53 percent in Sri Lankan exports to India", he said.

The Deputy High Commissioner added, "Most of the implementation issues that have created this so-called “perception” about the FTA have been resolved and others pertaining to NTBs can be resolved if there is will on the Sri Lankan side to move forward with already negotiated frameworks."

"Within two years of its coming into force, we saw a doubling of our trade turnover. In another three years, that is, by 2005, we doubled the trade turnover again. Between 2000 and 2008, the turnover grew five times."

The trend would have continued in 2009 if not for the global economic crisis.

"It should be a cause for satisfaction that early figures for 2010 are already showing a strong revival of trade between the two countries, which only goes to validate the path we are embarked upon."