The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe

¶ 01 Very well.

¶ 02 3. The present Government is committed to advancing the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India. However, any future engagement must be informed, strategically sequenced, and aligned with national interests. A high-level committee appointed by the Cabinet is conducting a comprehensive review of all existing FTAs to recommend strategic direction, priorities, and a negotiation framework, including for ETCA. Upon receipt of its recommendations, chief negotiators will be appointed and detailed negotiation modalities established, ensuring Sri Lanka enters the next negotiation round with clear objectives and a unified national position. Bilateral FTA negotiations with partners, including India, will be relaunched accordingly.

¶ 03 4. India’s rapid economic growth and emergence as a major global economic hub create unique opportunities for Sri Lanka. The Government recognizes the strategic importance of deeper integration with India’s value chains, production networks, and services systems on a mutually beneficial basis. Such integration requires careful planning, robust domestic preparation, and alignment with national development priorities, ensuring local industries, regulatory frameworks, and institutional capacity are ready to benefit. The Government is pursuing a structured programme to strengthen Sri Lanka’s trade and investment framework with India, while safeguarding national aspirations and competitiveness and leveraging regional opportunities arising from India’s economic expansion.

¶ 04 Parts 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the answer are tabled.

¶ 05 8. The Government recognizes the importance of a comprehensive assessment of Sri Lanka’s trade agreement framework, with public and parliamentary disclosure. A high-level committee has been appointed to conduct a full technical review of all FTAs, including 25 years of ISFTA performance, covering partial benefits and challenges, employment impacts, investment flows, export diversification, and overall trade balance. The objective is to ensure future negotiations, including on ETCA, are guided by sound data, independent analysis, and clear national objectives. The committee’s outputs will form the basis of a broad policy dialogue and be shared with Parliament and stakeholders to facilitate transparency and informed decision-making.

¶ 06 9. Tourism, port development, and financial sector linkages are areas where India is already active and where cooperation can be expanded to generate higher earnings, investment, and jobs for Sri Lanka. Detailed sectoral linkages under ETCA are still under discussion; therefore, specific modalities will be outlined in due course. Any cooperation will be pursued cautiously, guided by national development priorities, regulatory needs, and capacity-building requirements in the relevant sectors, to ensure it contributes to growth, competitiveness, and employment creation.

¶ 07 [Rest of the answer tabled, including: - Non-tariff measures affecting exports and steps via Sri Lankan missions to resolve operational barriers. - Safeguards for sensitive domestic sectors and professional services under any future ETCA commitments, including negative lists, phased liberalization, regulatory anchoring, controlled market access for foreign service providers under investment-linked conditions, and consistency with domestic immigration and regulatory frameworks. - Use of Sri Lanka’s Trade Remedies framework (Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties Act No. 2 of 2018; Safeguard Measures Act No. 3 of 2018). - Priority sectors for high-quality investment aligned to the long-term growth strategy (renewable energy, digital technology, maritime and services, higher education). - Progress on a bilateral investment treaty with India, to be concluded ahead of ETCA to channel investment cooperation within a robust framework. - Approach to professional mobility and mutual recognition: highly technical, regulator-led processes to protect domestic standards, especially in sensitive fields such as health and engineering; no adverse commitments will be undertaken.]