A Free Trade Agreement
(FTA) between India and Sri Lanka was signed on 28th
December, 1998 in New Delhi. The FTA has been made operative
by the issuance of Customs Notification on 1st March,
2000. The Agreement envisages phasing out of tariffs on all
products, over a period of time, except for a limited number
of items in the negative list. While India would complete the
process of tariff elimination over a period of 3 years, Sri
Lanka would achieve this over 8 years. During the first meeting
of the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) held in New Delhi on
7th June, 2002, both sides have
agreed in-principle to include trade in services to widen the
ambit of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. It has been
agreed that a Task Force shall be set up for concretising the
proposal for inclusion of trade in services in the FTA between
the two countries, Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce &
Industry, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
