Sri Lanka – Singapore FTA in troubled waters
The Sri Lanka – Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) has run into troubled waters following the startling revelations made by the 5-member Presidential Committee of Experts (CoE) in their 280-page report released recently.
Presidential Secretariat sources said that President Maithripala Sirisena has called for the suspension of the agreement pending its revision or abolition, as protests by professional associations, public interest groups and stakeholders of international trade over the SLSFTA grows to a boiling point.
The President’s directive comes at a time when the SLSFTA’s validity under the Constitution is being challenged at the Supreme Court by eight petitioners claiming that several professionals including doctors, engineers and lawyers would be affected due to this pact.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the cabinet of ministers and the Attorney General have been cited as respondents in the case which was taken up for hearing once before the Supreme Court and postponed to another date.
Under these circumstances, SLSFTA Chief Negotiator K.J. Weerasinghe has resigned citing health reasons making the situation more problematic for the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade.
After these mounting pressures exerted from all fronts especially from the Presidential level, a team of international trade experts is now scrutinising the observations and recommendations contained in the CoE report, Ministry sources revealed to the Business Times.
The ministry will submit counter submissions relating to adverse observations contained in the report and it will be made public next week, the sources said adding however that they are not aware of any directive of the President calling for the suspension of the agreement.
The CoE was of the view that the entire negotiation process was carried out without any feasibility and cost-benefit studies of a trade agreement with Singapore from Sri Lanka’s point of view.
It observed that some serious lapses were allowed to occur, perhaps deliberately or inadvertently to expedite matters in the process of signing the SLSFTA by Minister Malik Samarawickrema.
The Minister had indeed acted without attending to the conditions laid down by the Cabinet of Ministers in its conditional approval granted to him, the report said.
These lapses relate to non-compliance with the “matters highlighted by the Attorney General” as clearly included in the Cabinet approval as a necessary condition to be fulfilled before signing, the CoE emphasised while making several other startling revelations.