‘SL should benefit from regional trade agreements’

Indunil hewage

Many regional trade agreements signed by Sri Lanka are not moving forward due to transparency and product supply chain issues ,a top official from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)said.

Sri Lanka has not been able to reap benefit from many Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) such as the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) and the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) due to these problems. It is a well known fact that many people in the country are not aware of the benefits that they can obtain through these agreements .Prior to signing any PTA , it is imperative to keep people informed about the entire context of these agreements thereby giving them a chance to discover opportunities they can reap from PTAs. UNCTAD believes that having a dispute settlement mechanism for PTAs will give more credulity and transparency when it comes to conducting global trade activities.UNCTAD believes that Sri Lanka should have a proper mechanism to deepen the existing PTAs to achieve the set targets of the economy.

The objectives of any PTA need to be compatible with the country’s political and economic policies rather than providing reductions and tariffs. The outlook for the global economy is quite gloomy in the years to come, and the importance of having visible and transparent intra regional agreements is highly emphasized at this juncture. It is common practice among countries in the South Asian region to compete with each other to increase their global trade share.