Importers as important as exporters to the SL economy, official says
Importers, as much as exporters, are important to the Sri Lankan economy and their interests too need to be considered, a senior Commerce Department official said.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Import Section of the Chamber of Commerce held in Colombo recently, Director General of Commerce R.D.S.
Kumararatne told the gathering that the economy has reached a stage where not only exports but the interest of the importer was paramount.
Sri Lanka has entered into FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) with several countries and it was important for the importer to be conversant with the provisions of these regulations. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations were not productive in international trade practices in terms of equity for its members and developing countries were left with no alternatives but to seek FTAs with neighbouring countries.
Mr. Kumararatne said that in 1990 there were only around 90 FTAs. However this number has increased to 575 by 2013.
The impact of FTAs is the reduction of duty on transactions on listed items.
“You are all experts in imports and still face many difficulties in with the FTA procedures. The Commerce Department is there to advise and help the importer. We entered into a FTA with India in 1998, which came into operation in the year 2000. We have the Pakistan – Sri Lanka FTA. We are expected to get into a FTA with China in the near future. Since the signing of the FTA with India we have Rs. 4 billion worth of trade. There are 1100 items in the negative list. This has to be so to protect our local industries,” he said.
He said FTAs have worked well and benefitted the Sri Lankan economy. There are other agreements for which Sri Lanka has been a signatory.
The Commerce chief said China has become the second economy in the world.
“We have so many untapped markets. We have the Vietnam, Portugal markets that we have not investigated much. South – South trade has increased. We import pharmaceuticals from India and the FTA has benefitted in this case,” he added.