Lankan ambassador to WTO presents credentials:

WTO help for capacity building

The newly appointed Sri Lankan ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Nimal Karunatilake presented credentials to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy on February 13.

Welcoming the new ambassador, Lamy provided him with a brief update on the state of play in the Doha Round of Trade Negotiations, which is commonly known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), with special emphasis on areas where WTO members have been able to achieve considerable progress in consensus building.

Lamy said the WTO would be pleased to offer more technical assistance for capacity building in trade-related institutions in Sri Lanka.

Following Lamy’s observations, Karunatilake said that Sri Lanka, being a founder member of both the GATT and the WTO, remained fully committed to the rule-based, multilateral trading system in promoting global trade.

Sri Lanka was also the first South Asian state to introduce market-friendly economic reforms. The unilateral trade liberalisation measures implemented under those reforms in the 1970s have made Sri Lanka one of the most business-friendly nations in the region, he said.

The ambassador said Sri Lanka looked forward to an early conclusion of the DDA that would effectively address the interests of all stakeholders, in particular, the specific issues and challenges faced by small and vulnerable economies like Sri Lanka.

Stressing Sri Lanka’s appreciation of the WTO support, Karunatilake conveyed his thanks to Lamy for the WTO cooperation to extend toward trade-related capacity building in Sri Lanka, through various training programmes, awareness building seminars and related projects.

Karunatilake is the sixth Lankan ambassador to the WTO, whose membership accounts for about 97 percent of the global trade.

He holds a career record of nearly 28 years at the Department of Commerce, Colombo.

His previous overseas assignments include Sri Lanka Missions in Baghdad, Tokyo, Manila, Paris and Washington DC.