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Brexit fallout: Lanka moving fast to strike deals with Britain
Sri Lanka, facing the fallout of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, is set to negotiate a new trade agreement with Britain.
Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva, who played a prominent role in the Government’s ultimately failed campaign to persuade Sri Lankans in Britain to vote to remain in the EU, told the Sunday Times Sri Lanka would now look to finalise a new trade agreement with Britain soon.
Accordingly, a committee of experts would meet in the coming days to study the implications of Britain’s decision and what Sri Lanka could do to minimise the impact, he revealed.
The main problem for Sri Lanka was that about 40% of the country’s exports to the EU went to Britain. The deputy minister said the Government was finalising the application for resumption of the GSP+ facility for about 100 Sri Lankan export items to the EU.
Now, however, this facility would apply only to the rest of Europe and not Britain. “The loss will be significant,” Dr. de Silva said. Sri Lanka would move quickly to get this facility from Britain also, he said. “Britain will want to reach agreements with many other countries as well, so we’ll have to really focus on this now.”
Public Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim, meanwhile, claimed that the Government had sent ministers, deputies and others to Britain to campaign for the ‘Remain’ camp on a request by the British Government.
Mr. Hashim said Sri Lanka respected the decision of British voters, but move quickly to renegotiate its trade deals with the non-EU partners
Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, however, said Government acted in haste in getting involved in the UK referendum because of the United National Parties links with Britain’s Conservative Party rather than any concern over trade links with Britain.
He said such issues should be closely studied. “Rushing into the situation will not help Sri Lanka as this country itself is in economic crisis. We need to be careful and come to a consensus after properly studying these issues,” he added.
Minister Harin Fernando who also went to Britain said they spoke to Sri Lankans there on the need to vote to remain in the EU but he stressed that he went to Britain to take part in a Telecommunication conference while Deputy Foreign Minister se Silva went their mainly for a GSP + related issue.