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Friday, 2 February 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Himal Kotelawala
The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) yesterday called on President Maithripala Sirisena to intervene in the ongoing ETCA negotiations, going as far as to urge him to take over the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade if necessary.
AITP Secretary Lasantha Wickramasinghe speaking to journalists accused the Government of turning a blind eye to the concerns raised by some 15 professional associations, for the benefit of a single industry.
He was referring to the apparel sector, which he said was represented in the ETCA negotiating team an industry veteran.
ETCA negotiations have been underway in secret, said Wickramasinghe, with a round of talks held between 18 and 20 December, to be followed by a fresh round of trade talks in February, this year, in the midst of the upcoming local government elections.
Minister of of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama told an English daily earlier this week that the Government is looking to see if ETCA can be finalised by July or August. In the same interview, he said “only a couple of individuals” of one association had made adverse comments about the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) entered into with Singapore last month. Wickramasinghe refuted these claims.
“Minister Samarawickrama has said only a ‘couple of people’ have objected. This is not true. The professionals’ associations have a 100,000+ strong membership,” he said.
“Nobody knew about the Singapore FTA before it was signed,” he added, challenging the Minister to name a single professional association whose views were consulted.
Commenting on remarks made by President Sirisena recently that he intends to take over the running of the economy from the United National Party (UNP), Wickramasinghe questioned his sincerity, given his presence at the signing ceremony of the FTA.
“If he so wishes, the President can stop the negotiating team from going to India in February. He can even remove these individuals from the team. He even has the power to take over the Ministry after assessing its performance. The Ministry has not brought a single proper investor to this country. It’s only brought people to sell our national assets to,” he charged.
Wickramasinghe further said that the Ministry officials are woefully uninformed about the losses that he said the country will incur as a result of import duties being slashed when entering into FTAs with countries that Sri Lanka imports the most (namely India, China and Singapore).
“Are there plans to recover those losses? Or are are they going to reduce expenditure in health or education? They have to answer these questions,” he said.
He also referred to a New Zealand citizen of Sri Lankan origin being a member of the negotiating team.
“We have learnt our lesson by giving positions of significance to Singapore citizens. We asked the Ministry secretary in writing to confirm that all members are Sri Lankan citizens, and we have yet to receive a reply,” he said.
“We urge the President not to limit his pronouncements to election platforms and to please do something substantial to save the economy. Or at least do something to stop this team,” he added. Architect Nalaka Jayaweera, who has been representing professional associations since 2003 in CEPA and ETCA discussions, also spoke at the press conference, on the invitation of the AITP.
Jayaweera said that though Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had given an assurance that any trade agreements would be presented to Parliament before signing, the Singapore FTA was signed after obtaining Cabinet approval.
“We have requested for a certified copy of the Agreement. We’re still waiting for a reply,” he said.
The Singapore FTA is the first agreement for the liberalisation of both goods and services with a schedule of commitments attached, he said, recalling that a similar agreement made with Pakistan did not contain such a schedule.
Pointing out that there are two lists for documents pertaining to goods - a positive list and a negative list - whereas only a positive list would apply to services, he said, the lack of a negative list in the case of the Singapore FTA was problematic.
“Over the last few years, we’ve talked to the Government about building the legal framework needed for trade in services liberalisation in this country. We even volunteered to offer our expertise free of charge. It’s sad to say, these were ignored,” said Jayaweera.
He questioned why such an agreement was entered into in the absence of a sound legal framework.
A number of industries, he said, had been listed with the word ‘unbound’ added in front of each.
“This is deliberately misleading.” he added.
Sri Lanka signed the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in 1995. In 2018, said Jayaweera, no Government official can clarify whether the positive list in the Singapore FTA with the word ‘unbound’ added to each entry comes under a provision in GATS that says, as per World Trade Organisation (WTO) standards, the legal framework existing before the list is formulated is what applies and any changes must be done with the approval of other parties.
“Even if the Government says it will develop this framework, one wonders whether it can be practically implemented in Sri Lanka,” he said. “Apart from a handful of professions that are politically connected, nearly everything else has been taken up for liberalisation,” he went on to say. Insisting that he was not opposed to liberalisation, Jayaweera stressed that trade in services liberalisation is important and must not be done willynilly. “Without establishing a legal framework, you cannot go into trade in services liberalisation,” he reiterated.
“This isn’t a political contest. We’re not here to make anyone a king or to send anyone home. We just need to get this framework established in this country. Without it, the country cannot be developed. We must all get together to fix and then go liberalisation,” he said.
