India- Sri Lanka ETCA  Negotiations

Dear Members,

 

This is further to our earlier circulars informing you about the negotiations for India- Sri Lanka ETCA  (Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement) and ministry’s request for inputs. 

 

As you might be aware, India & Sri Lanka have signed India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISLFTA).    This FTA was signed in 1998 and entered into force in March 2000.  Under this agreement, both countries had agreed to phase out tariffs within a fixed time frame, except for those products in the Negative List maintained by both the countries.

 

India & Sri Lanka had started negotiations on an Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) which will cover services, investment and other sectors, in addition to trade in goods. For this purpose, products need to be identified on which concessions may be sought from Sri Lanka under the proposed ETCA. Similarly, a list of products is required to be drawn up on which India could consider granting concessions to Sri Lanka. Further, in the ETCA, as of now it is proposed to have Change in Tariff Sub-Heading (CTSH) plus 35% value addition as the general Rules of Origin criterion. It is also proposed to have limited number of Product Specific Rules of Origin.

 

In this regard the following lists are enclosed:

 

i. Indian Negative List under ISLFTA (HS 2017 8 digit).
ii. Indian Sensitive List under SAFTA (HS 2017 6/8 digit).
iii. Sri Lankan Negative List under ISLFTA (HS 2017 8 digit).
iv. Sri Lanka Sensitive List under SAFTA (HS 2007 6 digit).

 

Members  are hereby requested to examine these lists inputs for negotiations under the proposed ETCA with Sri Lanka indicating the items to be included in the request list of India and items which can be considered for exclusion from India's negative list under ISLFTA, as desired by DoC.    

It is also requested to provide comments on the proposed changes in General Rule from existing CTH+35`)/0 to CTSH+35%. Further products on which product specific Rules of Origin (other than general rule of origin) is required may also be identified along with the specific criterion for those products.

 

It is further requested to identify specific products on which Sanitary and phyto Sanitary and Technical barriers to Trade related non-tariff difficulties are being faced by the industry, in order to consider appropriate agreements for reciprocal conformity assessments.

 

A  stakeholder meeting is scheduled to be held on 20 August, 2018 at 10:30 AM in DoC at Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi.  
Therefore members are kindly requested to  revert with   inputs latest by  18/08/2018 on our e-mail ids- deepak.gupta@chemexcil.gov.in, rodelhi@chemexcil.gov.in & balani.lic@chemexcil.gov.in  so that we can send to Department of Commerce for consideration  in the stakeholder meeting.    

Your  timely replies will be appreciated.

 

Thanking You,

 

Yours faithfully,

 

S.G. BHARADI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CHEMEXCIL

 

Encl : list of Second Stakeholder consultation