Thai-Sri Lanka FTA talks to resume after 4 years

Auramon Supthaweethum, the department’s director-general, said the two-day negotiations will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The second round of negotiations were supposed to take place in 2018, but the discussions were put on hold for four years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing restructuring of Sri Lanka’s government agencies.

Thailand’s committee at the talks will negotiate rules on bilateral trade, such as regulations on the origin of goods, standard of service, investments, customs and trade facilitation, she said.

Ms Auramon said the negotiations are expected to wrap up in the next 1-2 years.

Between January and November last year, the value of Thai-Sri Lankan trade stood at US$334.31 million (about 11.2 billion baht).

Thailand exported goods worth US$253 million to Sri Lanka, such as natural rubber, clothes, gems, ornaments, plastic pellets, machines and their parts.

Meanwhile, Thailand imported goods worth US$ 81.31 million from Sri Lanka, such as gems, diamonds, machine parts, clothes, plants and its products and chemicals.