Govt. to institutionalise trade negotiation process

The Cabinet this week approved the reconstitution of the National Trade Negotiating Committee comprising of 16 members, appointing representatives of different agencies as heads of subcommittees tasked with handling negotiations of all free trade agreements underway at present. 

Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama, presenting a Cabinet proposal, has informed the Ministers that considering the magnitude and complexity of the negotiation with widened scope, a need has arisen to institutionalise the negotiation process. 

Further, the Minister also highlighted the need to establish the functional responsibilities of respective agencies as per their institutional mandates to ensure that the relevant provisions in the free trade agreements approximately cover all relevant policy or regulatory aspects.  

Highlighting that negotiating three FTA negotiations at the same time is a “challenging task”, the Minister said that the negotiations with India, China and Thailand will continue under the TNC. The ETCA negotiations is now in its 10th round, while six rounds have been concluded on the China-Sri Lanka FTA, and one round of negotiations to draw up a similar agreement with Thailand. 

Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade Consultant, and Commerce Department former Director General K. J. Weerasinghe will be Chief Negotiator of the Committee while a number of other members have been appointed as the heads of the subcommittees to carry forward the negotiations.