Sri Lanka, Japan to initiate talks on a trade deal

Wednesday, 4 June 2014 00:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka and Japan are to initiate talks on a win-win trade deal with the latter agreeing to send a top team to Colombo to pursue the initiative. This was following Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Japan Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda meeting with Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Vice Minister for International Affairs Norihiko Ishiguro last week, to discuss key issues prior to the commencement of ‘Inter-governmental Economic Policy Dialogue’ between the two countries in the context of a trade arrangement. “As a result of a series of such discussions, the METI of Japan has agreed to send a delegation to Sri Lanka, in the immediate future, to conduct preliminary discussions in this context,” the Sri Lanka Embassy in Tokyo said.

The Embassy has been working with METI of Japan since July 2012 to have a viable economic and trade arrangement between the two countries. During the last two years, the Embassy has had eight rounds of discussions with the Vice Ministers and with senior most officials of the METI in order to map out seminal courses of action to enhance economic, investment and commercial engagement with Japan, in all spheres, by entering into a viable trade arrangement or agreement with Japan. Japan has Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with ASEAN, India, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Peru, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Switzerland and Mexico, among others respectively. It may also be stated that for both the countries to have a result oriented, focused and practicable trade arrangement/agreement, similar to that of the listed countries, would be most opportune at this juncture, since Japan would be hosting the Olympics in 2020 and Sri Lanka could extend the much-needed human resources, both skilled and semi-skilled, to meet the demands. During the meeting, the Vice Minister Norihiko Ishiguro was accompanied by the Deputy Director General Eiya Iida, Director for Trade Policy Mikio Aoki and Deputy Director of Southwest Asia office of METI Takashi Shimokyoda. Ambassador Admiral Karannagoda was associated with the Deputy Chief of Mission Saj Mendis and Commercial Counsellor D.D. Premaratne during the discussions with the Vice Minister of METI.