People movement via ETCA only later, in stages: Malik

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India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama Pic by Pradeep Pathirana

By Chandeepa Wettasinghe While the natural movement of persons was not on the agenda of the initial talks on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India, it would be implemented progressively, Development S t r a t egies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama yesterday said.

“We will look at that in stages. We mutually agree that in some stage we won’t have the resources. We won’t have enough people. If you’re going to take our IT industry from a billion (dollars) now to US $5-10 billion, we’ll need people,” he said in response to a query by Mirror Business. Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference held with India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Samarawickrama said that until Sri Lankan talent was developed, the country would need some help.

“On a controlled basis we can manage. We’ll leave it to the chambers. Everybody’s getting worried about the Indians starting to come but you wouldn’t believe, every sector of our industries is asking me for permission to get people,” he said.
He said that apparel, plantations, shipbuilding and construction industries were asking for more people.
“We have to look at this. We have an issue,” he said.
Many pressure groups have noted a flooding of the Sri Lankan labour market by cheap Indian labour as a key reason for opposing ETCA.
“If Indian labour is cheap, Sri Lankan companies should come and invest in India,” Sitharaman said.
The Sri Lankan apparel sector is already a major employer in India, especially in the Southern Indian states. Sitharaman, who stressed that the shortcomings of the current free trade agreement should be addressed before signing ETCA, said that the tariff barriers would be addressed by the upcoming national Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Noting that the non-tariff barriers were within the World Trade Organisation’s limits, she said that all concerns of Sri Lankan businessmen would be addressed in negotiations early next month.
“I have invited, along with the delegation that is coming for negotiations for the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement, a delegation to come to India who are concerned with non-tariff measures, so that our team, the concerned authorities can simply talk to them,” she said.
Sitharaman added that emotions have overtaken facts in the dialogue until now, and said that 70 percent of Sri Lankan exports to India come through the FTA while only 10 percent of Indian exports come to Sri Lanka through the FTA, which Samarawickrama also corroborated and said wrong information was being disseminated.
Sitharaman noted that if Sri Lanka wanted to exit either deal in the future, both countries could mutually disagree to be a part of them.

Meanwhile, Samarawickrama admitted that the ETCA signing may be delayed past his earlier promise of signing before this December.

“Our intention is to try and finish it as soon as possible before the end of December. It is possible, but it’s not a certainty because of all the issues,” he said.

He was responding to a question by Mirror Business after Sitharaman said that the ETCA should be negotiated without the pressure of a time frame, and that both parties should be at peace with the final result.

India backs SL’srenewable energy move

India is supportive of Sri Lanka’s decision to pursue renewable energy instead of the India funded coal power plant in Sampur, Sitharaman said. Noting that the world was moving towards cleaner energy, she said that the move is commendable. “National priorities have to be in line with international commitments.

So if in that line Sri Lanka has decided to move out of coal and look at other renewable energy, we in India, although there are difficulties, have to sit down with Sri Lanka and understand how we can get over this issue,” she said. In response to a question whether India was bitter over the outcome, she said that bitter was not a word she would use. The Supreme Court this month ruled to scrap the Sampur coal power plant over environmental issues. Sri Lanka is facing a power crisis in 2018 due to continuous delaying of the project since 2013, and the government was now hoping that private sector renewable options would bridge the gap.

However, the Sampur plant has the option of being relocated to another part of the country, according to the Ceylon Electricity Board’s Least Cost Long Term Generation Plan. Meanwhile, Sitharaman said that the issue would not hamper Indian investments into Sri Lanka in the future, as there are many investment opportunities.

We are looking at various projects for investment. They (Indian businesses) want to come here,” she said.