Sri Lanka asks Indonesia to cut wheat-flour import tax

Discussions over the supply of Sri Lankan wheat-flour to Indonesia is set to continue, to mitigate recently implemented import safeguards.

Indonesia is a key destination for wheat-flour produced in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. However measures to safeguard I ndonesia’s domestic industry, which has suffered as a result of foreign supply, exports from Turkey, which is the largest supplier to the nation, followed by Sri Lanka and Australia have been constricted.

“Our domestic wheat flour industry has been seriously affected by foreign supplies over the recent years. We are aware of the importance of wheat flour industry in Sri Lanka and, therefore, consultations are continuing between the two governments to address this issue in a mutu- ally satisfactory manner,” Indonesian Vice Minister for Trade Bayu Krisnamurthy said during a meeting in Bali with Minister for Industry and Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen.

Minister Bathiudeen is currently in Bali, Indonesia leading the Sri Lankan delegation to the 9th session of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Conference which includes senior officials from the Department of Commerce and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the WTO, Geneva.

Sri Lanka was the second largest foreign supplier of wheat flour to Indonesia with 166,919 metric tonnes being exported, amounting to onefifth of wheat flour exports to Indonesia in 2010 while Turkey supplied 59 percent of exports to Indonesia.