The best that never was: Sri Lanka- Japan Free Trade Agreement

A need for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Japan was proposed by the Sri Lankan exporters around 2010. At that time, Sri Lanka's Department of Commerce, the main government agency responsible for the trade negotiations, also strongly favoured negotiating an FTA with Japan for a number of reasons.

- GOMI SENADHIRA

The lack of a level playing field in Main Markets

By then, much of our export growth had come from two advanced economies; the European Union and the United States, which together accounted for more than half of our exports. In those markets, after the end of the quota arrangement for apparel exports, Sri Lanka's competitiveness was getting eroded due to the absence of a level playing field. In the U.S. and EU, most of our competitors from Asia, Africa and the Americas were enjoying much better levels of market access through FTAs and other trade arrangements. Our requests to Brussels and Washington for FTAs, since 2001, did not get any favourable response. In Washington, even after the U.S Administration turned down the request, the Sri Lankan embassy spent a large amount of money on consultants who promised FTA. But that too turned out to be simply a waste of money. After turning down the request for an FTA, Brussels offered an alternate arrangement to provide a better level of market access through GSP (labour), which was later upgraded to GSP Plus. But that too had run into problems by 2010.

The need for Market Diversification