Sri Lanka Government to establish International Trade Office to synergize external trade

The Government of Sri Lanka decided to reorganise the existing conventional institutional set-up and establish the International Trade Office.

On the directions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the International Trade Office will be established to interconnect all the relevant institutions and synergize their work to obtain maximum output from the external trade sector to the national economy, President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

“Realizing the untapped economic potential of trade and investment via linking with regional and global value chains is a major element of the Government’s economic revival programme. Towards this end, the ambition is to first integrate into South Asia and then expand to the east; China, Thailand and Indonesia linking to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which consists of 30% of the world’s GDP, trade and population.”

“To achieve this overarching objective, there is no alternative but to formulate a strong institutional structure to manage Sri Lanka’s presence in international trade while removing the existing compartmentalization of trade-related institutions and eliminating the gaps in the approaches taken by multiple institutions,” PMD reported.

The International Trade Office, once it is established through an Act of Parliament, will be headed by an Ambassador of International Trade, supported by an eminent group of advisors who have expertise in international trade and the core structure of the institution will consist of designated officers from all the relevant institutions attached to it, the PMD reported.

The National Trade Negotiation Committee which undertakes the Free Trade Negotiations will also be an integral part of the International Trade Office. As announced in the 2023 Budget Speech, the International Trade Office will initially be established under the Ministry of Finance and subsequently, it will be amalgamated into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement Sri Lanka’s foreign trade development policy across the world with enhanced and effective coordination.

The President’s Media Division further added that until the establishment of the International Trade Office is fully completed, the core staff of the institution have been built up at the Presidential Secretariat immediately to start functioning.

Accordingly, taking immediate measures to operationalize Sri Lanka – Singapore FTA (SLSFTA) which entered into force in May 2018 but has not been operationalized till now, will be the first task of the International Trade Office. The Joint Committee set up in accordance with SLSFTA comprising designated officials from both countries will meet in January 2023 and finalize the modalities to agree on operationalization, it said.

“In parallel, by next January the International Trade Office will resume negotiations of the three FTAs with India, China and Thailand. The Chief Negotiator and the National Trade Negotiation Committee (NTNC) comprising Sub Committees on specific areas have been appointed by the Cabinet for this task.”

In parallel, the government plans to resume negotiation of the three FTAs with India, China and Thailand. The 12th round of negotiations with India, the 7th round of negotiations with China and the 3rd round of negotiations with Thailand will be held during the first two months of 2023. It is planned to complete these negotiations possibly within the next year.

Stakeholder consultations will be held with relevant Chambers/associations before and after every round of negotiation to make them aware of the status of negotiations as they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the FTAs with enhanced market access. Already, the first stakeholder awareness programme was held on November 17 of 2022. Moreover, simultaneous actions will also be taken through this office to revive the PTA negotiations with Bangladesh and Indonesia.

In coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other related institutions, the International Trade Office will also address and resolve the implementation-related issues related to the existing trade agreements, it said.

(President’s Media)