No deal detrimental to country will be signed - President

President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured that he will not sign any agreement that will have adverse effects to the country.

He made this statement after meeting with a group of professionals who met him at Temple Trees to hand over a memorandum protesting against the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India Tuesday.

President Rajapaksa said any bilateral agreement should have equal benefits to both countries.

Some groups argue that CEPA benefits India more than Sri Lanka and would adversely affect Sri Lankan businesses. The Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA), signed on December 28, 1998 and entered into force with effect from March 1, 2000, aims at promoting economic linkages between India and Sri Lanka through enhancement of bilateral trade and investment.

The Agreement covers only trade in goods and requires the two countries to offer market access for each other’s exports on duty free basis and concessionary tariffs. The ISFTA does not provide for elimination of non-tariff barriers.

Spurred by the implementation of ISFTA in 2000, exports from Sri Lanka to India have increased over the years except for 2006.

The value of Sri Lanka’s exports to India increased from US$ 55.7 million in 2000, (the year ISFTA became operational) to US$ 516.4 million in 2007.

For the first time in the history, the two way merchandise trade exceeded US$ three billion in 2007 representing 17 percent of Sri Lanka’s trade with the world.

Accounting for 6.7 percent of Sri Lanka’s total exports to the world, India remained the island’s 3rd largest buyer in the year 2007 after USA and UK.

At present, more than 70 percent of the total value of Sri Lanka’s exports enters India under the tariff preferences offered through the ISFTA.

In 1996, 1997 and from 2001 India became the largest supplier to Sri Lanka overtaking Japan.

Sri Lanka’s share of imports from India during 2007 accounted for 24.4 percent of its total imports from the whole world. Export from Sri Lanka to India increased by 4.5 percent from US$ 494.06 million in 2006 to US$ 516.40 Million in 2007. It is observed that in 2007, several major product categories recorded increases, when compared with 2006.

Imports from India to Sri Lanka increased by 52.8 percent from US$ 1.8 billion in 2006 to US$ 2.7 billion in 2007. President’s Media Unit.