Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Harsha De Silva cautioned the country about the impact of any small change in the US trade policy due to political alterations there, on account of the apparel industry’s dependence on the US market.
At Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association’s AGM held in Colombo, the Minister averred, “Given that America is very important to us, 25 per cent of our exports go to the US and 70 per cent of that was apparels, I don’t think in the short term there is going to be any misalignment. Any way any small shock can have a large repercussion because of the dependency we have on the US economy. Without TPP, is it possible for Sri Lanka to create opportunities in this unsettled global trade environment?”
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The Minister also made a mention of effects of Brexit while talking about country’s exports to the UK which were about US $ 1 billion or 10 per cent of the total exports. However, he opined that the UK wouldn’t be as worrisome as the US on the backdrop of his optimism that by mid next year Sri Lanka will receive GST+ concessions from the European Union.
