10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

New Democratic Front· National List· 8 November 2025 ·Oral question: Question by Private Notice: Benefits of Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement and Negotiations on ETCA

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Hon. Ravi Karunanayake raised a question under Standing Order 27(2) on the 25-year performance of the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement and the need to upgrade economic cooperation with India through the proposed ETCA. He asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism to address the trade deficit, non-tariff barriers, stalled ETCA negotiations, safeguards, value-chain integration, investment and technology priorities, professional mobility through mutual recognition agreements, and sectoral opportunities in tourism, ports and banking. He also requested accountability measures, including tabling a 25-year review of the ISFTA, in the context of the President’s Budget Speech.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I seek your permission to raise the following Question under Standing Order No. 27(2).

¶ 02 [Speech outlining: 25 years of ISFTA; outcomes; non-tariff barriers; need to upgrade via ETCA; stalled negotiations; India’s economic rise; Sri Lanka’s trade deficit with India; policy questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism on (1) trade balance, (2) non-tariff barriers, (3) ETCA negotiation stalemate and appointing a chief negotiator, (4) strategic integration with India’s value chains, (5) safeguards in ETCA, (6) investment and technology cooperation priorities, (7) MRAs for professional mobility, with a health-sector example, (8) accountability and tabling a 25-year ISFTA review, and (9) tourism, ports and banking synergies. He seeks answers in light of the President’s Budget Speech.]

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Saturday, 8 November 2025 ·No. 22727 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
Permalink
/lk/speeches/6456

Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 8 November 2025. No. 22727. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/6456