SL to harness Thailand FTA for agri sector modernisation
The Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka is mainly focused on agricultural sector cooperation in addition to capacity building, top officials said.
The State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe on Tuesday told the Business Times that the FTA, to be finalised by year-end, will especially focus on modernising the agricultural sector. “Sri Lanka has done only a limited amount in the agricultural sector modernisation. However, where it was done, we notice that there is an enhanced youth participation in the agri sector. As a result, we plan to modernise the agri sector with the help of Thailand to increase youth participation, he added.
Finance Ministry officials said the text part of this FTA was recently discussed. The fifth round of discussions was concluded last month. Once finalised, there will be a request list which both parties will exchange. In addition to technical cooperation in agriculture, similar partnerships in livestock and also capacity building is looked at through this FTA.
Ministry officials said that there are moves to re-commence negotiations on the Chinese FTA and also the Indian one. Mr. Semasinghe confirmed this, noting that both will be finalised by year-end. Preliminary talks on the Chinese FTA were held and a team from China will visit Sri Lanka soon, a Ministry official said.
He added that the impending visit of the President to India and talks with the Prime Minister of India will add the final touches to the Indian FTA.
Mr. Semasinghe noted that since most FTAs were initiated some time ago, the dynamics have changed considerably after the pandemic. “If you take the example of Vietnam, that country’s international trade has increased multiple times due to the number of FTAs that Vietnam has signed with major markets. Sri Lanka needs to up the offer that it has for attracting investors,” he added.
Foreign Minister Ali Sabry fresh from talks with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and officials from the Thai Federation of Industries, told the Business Times on Wednesday that Thai officials were keen to expedite FTA negotiations. “We also applied for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which helps us access markets such as Cambodia, Australia, Japan, Laos, NZ, Thailand, Brunei, and Vietnam,” he said.
Mr.Sabri added that Sri Lanka has requested Singapore, for time to start FTA negotiations.
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