ISDS Case Map
Sri Lanka
A majority of Indian secondary copper smelters based in Sri Lanka are winding up their operations in that country because of economic problem as well as threat perception over local environmental issues.
A high level team of Indian trade officials will arrive in Sri Lanka next week to finalise the quotas for cooking oil and bakery shortening exported from Sri Lanka to India, says the Secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Trade, R.M.K. Rathnayaka.
India has warned Sri Lanka that it will not proceed with the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) until Sri Lanka puts a check on its copper, pepper and vanaspati exports to the country.
Even as vanaspati imports from Sri Lanka continue to be a contentious issue, it has now come to light that the island country is yet to notify the second phase of tariff liberalisation under the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with India.
Sri Lanka has mooted a free trade agreement (FTA) with Bangladesh citing its positive experience with the ones it has signed with India and Pakistan.
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has said that imports under the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) should not adversely affect the domestic industry. Rather, such an engagement should be a win-win situation bringing economic benefits to both sides. The Minister said this in the context of vanaspati imports under the Indo-Sri Lanka FTA, when the issue was raised by Mr. Jayaraj Fernandopulle, Minister for Trade, Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Highways, who called on him here last evening.
Sri Lanka has proposed a free trade agreement (FTA) or preferential trade pact with Malaysia, but the two countries are a long way towards reaching a final decision, a Sri Lankan corporate leader said.
The joke in South Block nowadays is that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ever so keen to visit Pakistan because he finds it easier to deal with General Pervez Musharraf than to deal with his Cabinet colleagues. If Mr Arjun Singh ambushed him and sent the entire country into a caste driven frenzy, one of his other Ministerial colleagues leaked the contents of a letter to the Prime Minister from Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressing concern over the free trade agreement that India had signed with its ASEAN partners.
Sri Lanka's pepper exports to the country are a threat to the Indian growers and the Union Government would work out a solution through political and other means, according to Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce.
