Sl-china FTA concerns

As Sri Lanka and China has ended the first round of negotiation for the upcoming Free Trade Agreement, Prof. Abeyratne stressed it was important for the government to reassess some of the proposals.

It was pointed out that while both the nations have negotiated the list of ‘highly sensitive products’, ‘general sensitive products’, and ‘normal products’ to be incorporated into the agreement, the highly imperative ‘rules of origins’ have been left out. While stressing the importance of negotiating properly with regards to this element, Abeyratne warned Sri Lanka must not approach the ‘rules of origin’ in the Sri Lanka- China FTA the same way as it did for its FTA’S with India and Pakistan, where it is 35 percent on FOB value.

“If we apply the same rule to the Chinasri Lanka FTA, we will be in deep trouble. We know that the Chinese development is based largely on the new global supply chain dominated trade pattern in which the domestic value addition is very low.

“If the same domestic rule of origin is applied, a lot of Chinese products will be out and that is an issue we will be faced with,” he warned.

Abeyratne also stressed Sri Lanka listing 3316 products, which is 48 percent of the total range into the highly sensitive product category, is not a practical proposal. China has listed only 824 products (10 percent) in this category.

(SAA)