It was announced last month that Sri Lanka and Thailand have come to a consensus on a free trade agreement (FTA). Thailand has proposed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a Strategic Economic Partnership (SEP) with Sri Lanka as a stepping stone towards a fully-fledged FTA.
The MoU is expected to be concluded with an action plan in order to be signed during Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak’s visit to Sri Lanka in August 2017.
STATS and status quo
The two parties expressed their interest to further enhance trade and achieve the targets set by the leaders of the two countries to bring total trade to US $ 1.5 billion by 2020.
The current annual trade levels between Thailand and Sri Lanka is in the range of US $ 550 million.
To achieve the US $ 1.5 billion trade objective, it was agreed to explore the possibilities of establishing the bilateral FTA and developing the SEP between Thailand and Sri Lanka in identified sectors of mutual interest.
