Lula seeks deeper Sri Lanka trade ties as $ 1 b target looms

Wednesday, 28 October 2026 00:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Anura Kumara Dissanayake (left) with Lula da Silva at the AI Impact 2026 Summit in New Delhi in February 2026

Newly elected for a fourth term, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has expressed hope of deepening bilateral trade and technical cooperation with Sri Lanka, as the two countries work towards elevating bilateral trade to $ 1 billion by 2030.

“I hope we can deepen technical cooperation and bilateral trade between our countries,” Lula said in a post on X, responding to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s message congratulating him on his election victory. Lula also recalled meeting Dissanayake in India in February this year.

The $ 1 billion trade target was agreed at the Second Round of Bilateral Political Consultations, held in Colombo on 20 March, 2026.

At the talks, both sides acknowledged steady growth in economic cooperation and stressed the importance of broadening engagement in response to evolving global economic dynamics.

Under the technical cooperation framework, the Dairy Livestock Project and the Sugarcane Project have been finalised and are expected to be signed in the near future, with support from the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC). The parties also committed to finalising outstanding legal instruments on defence, law enforcement, countering human smuggling and transnational organised crime, traditional and Ayurvedic medicine, and diplomatic training.

New avenues for cooperation were identified in agriculture, animal husbandry, agricultural research, ports and shipping, and sports. Both sides agreed to continue close collaboration in bilateral and multilateral forums.

In his post, Lula said Brazilians had shown that democracy could be defended against disinformation and extremism. In an earlier post on X, Dissanayake described Lula’s win as historic, saying it showed that people could not be misled by political dynasties and forces of the past.

“Today, the people of Brazil did not just win an election; they defeated the forces of corruption, division and political lies,” Dissanayake said.

The target requires roughly a five-fold increase on current levels. Two-way trade was $ 199.5 million in 2025, according to Export Development Board (EDB) data. Sri Lanka’s exports to Brazil fell 13.2% to $ 73.5 million, while imports from Brazil surged 77.5% to $ 126 million, leaving a deficit of $ 52.5 million. Sri Lanka had run a surplus with Brazil every year from 2018 to 2024, according to Sri Lanka Customs data published by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Brasilia.

Exports peaked at $ 84.6 million in 2024, led by apparel, new pneumatic tyres, fuel oil and retreaded or used rubber tyres. Synthetic rubber, sugar and paper were the main imports. The Embassy says there were no recorded significant Brazilian investments in Sri Lanka as of 2023. It lists light vessels, animal feed preparations, rubber gloves, new pneumatic tyres, desiccated coconut, cinnamon and solid or cushion tyres as having strong export potential in Brazil.

Trade under the Global System of Trade Preferences among Developing Countries (GSTP), to which both countries belong, remains negligible: Sri Lanka’s exports under the scheme were $ 80,000 in 2022.