A top trade official, the first high-powered US official to visit Sri Lanka after the US-sponsored resolution on human rights issues in Geneva, met trade union leaders in Colombo this week and also sounded a note of caution on trade relations. Speaking in the backdrop of calls by Minister Wimal Weerawansa to boycott US goods in retaliation for the Geneva resolution, US Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Michael Delaney said the US is Sri Lanka's biggest employer and has prospects of tripling trade if the right policies were in place. Speaking at the Sri Lanka Expo 2012 Trade, Investment and Tourism Symposium on Thursday, he said the US is Sri Lanka's biggest customer comprising one-third of the country's exports.
In 2010, the US imported $1.7 billion worth of goods from Sri Lanka and only purchased $168 million worth of items from here. At a meeting with unions at the US embassy on Wednesday, Mr Delaney, who has been visiting Sri Lanka regularly on trade and trade union issues, assured that the review of labour rights vis-à-vis GSP will continue.
He was responding to a query on whether the US would abandon the review as a reciprocal 'balancing act' for sponsoring the Sri Lankan resolution. He was quoted as saying by one of the union officials present, that the review, based on a petition complaining of labour rights violations, would continue until Sri Lanka's labour standards had reached international standards. The other officials on the US review team were Timothy Wedding, Dep. Asst. US Trade Rep (Labour Affairs); Ann Zollner, Division Chief, Labour Department, Trade Policy and Negotiations Division; Karan E. Swaner, Economic Affairs Officer, Office of Bilateral Affairs, US State Department; and Mara M. Burr, Dep. Asst. US Trade Representative, South and Central Asian Affairs. The discussions centered on labour rights issues and whether facilitation centres at Katunayake and Biyagama were effective. Some unions raised the issue of unfair labour practices. Mr Delaney's team also met officials of the Board of Investment.
Speaking on national reconciliation at the Expo 2012 symposium, he said that a country that was a leader in this area since its independence, in retrospect had while making progress "fallen short" of optimistic expectations that were seen as far back as 1987. He queried why the Sri Lankan government structures were incapable of doing so within a civil political framework adding that this shows the inability of the economy to deliver. However, he was quick to observe that it did not mean that the economic issues were the cause of the division in Sri Lanka but noted it had exacerbated it to a point that it became unmanageable. Mr. Delaney noted that Sri Lanka has a comparative advantage especially in relation to products of high value. On IT, he observed that the use of high technology must not be a segmented but incorporated within all areas of the economy. He noted that Sri Lanka could also serve as a manufacturing base for the IT sector.
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