Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-30

Implementation of the 04th Round of Duty Concessions under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement

- The Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) which is a Regional Co-operation Agreement comprising of 06 member countries namely, Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, South Korea and Sri Lanka (previously known as the Bangkok Agreement), is the only operational trade agreement in which China and India, the two of the fastest growing markets in the world, are members. Under this trade agreement, the 03 rounds of duty concessions on selected trade items are implemented from 1990 up to now and accordingly, Sri Lanka has granted duty concessions on 442 items.

Under the 04th round of the agreement, Sri Lanka has agreed to grant duty concessions for a further 143 items so as not to cause any adverse effect on the state revenue and the local industries. All member countries have agreed to implement the duty concessions effective from January 2018 at the 4th round of duty concessions. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance and Mass Media, to implement the duty concessions of the said 143 items agreed upon by Sri Lanka effective from January 2018 and for this purpose to issue an Order under the Revenue Protection Act, No.19 of 1962 and present it in Parliament for approval, was approved by the Cabinet.