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| Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
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CEPA talks in March The next round of negotiations of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will be held in Colombo next month. At the second round of negotiations held last week in India led by the Commerce Secretaries of India and Sri Lanka it was decided that the working groups would submit their report by June this year to enable CEPA to be concluded as early as possible. At the meeting both sides agreed to set up a trade negotiating committee, its working groups and sub groups to set out a clear road map for negotiations. The negotiations would include widening and deepening free trade in goods under the existing Indo Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which has been in operation since March 2000. On services, investment and economic cooperation the working groups will identify the areas which would be of mutual benefit and recommend the modalities for substantial increase in bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Both sides agreed that the report of the Joint Study Group submitted to the two governments in October 2003 would be a useful document and provide practical input for negotiations. It was also decided to explore the possibility of setting up an Economic Cooperation Fund which would facilitate the flow of investments from India to Sri Lanka.
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