Govt. agrees to formulate national policy on trade agreements, says GMOA

by Dasun Edirisinghe
The government has agreed not to sign the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India without formulating a national policy on trade agreements, the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) says.
GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya told The Island yesterday that his outfit had met Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrema and Adviser to Prime Minister Charitha Ratwatte to discuss the appointment of a commission to prepare a national policy on trade agreements before signing the ETCA.
"It is necessary to prepare a national policy and trade agreements should be based on it as is done in other countries," Dr. Padeniya said.
The GMOA President tore into the ETCA at a recent lecture organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and first secretary of the Indian High Commission in Colombo also delivered a lecture promoting ETCA.
After his speech against ETCA, Dr. Padeniya said, the Indians had agreed to dilute some sections of the agreement, according to
Minister Samarawickrema.
When the GMOA met Minister Samarawickrema at his ministry on Wednesday he had also agreed to formulate a national policy, but the GMOA was not agreeable to the formulation of the national policy by those involved in drafting the ETCA, Dr. Padeniya said.
"We proposed to form a national policy through a commission just like the National Salaries and Cadre Commission (NSCC) that prepared the Wage Policy in 2003," Dr. Padeniya said.
He said the NSCC was formed when K. N. Choksy was the Finance Minister and Charitha Ratwatte the Treasury Secretary.
The GMOA asked Ratwatte's involvement to form the commission as he had the experience to do so like in 2003, Dr. Padeniya said.
"Accordingly, we met Ratwatte at the Prime Minister's office on Thursday evening," Dr. Padeniya said, adding that the process of setting up the commission was initiated.
However, speculation is rift that Sri Lanka and India have decided to finalise the text of the ETCA so that it can be signed by Diwali (October 30), the great Hindu festival of colours being celebrated the world over.
Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India Esala Weerakoon told The Island on Thursday a decision to that effect had been taken by Minister Malik Samarawickrama and India's Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman when they met in New Delhi early this week.
Weerakoon, who attended the meeting between the two ministers, said they were keen that the ETCA was signed preferably by Diwali, but definitely by the year-end.
Answering a query regarding the comment of High Commissioner Weerakoon, Dr. Padeniya said they had not been informed of the date of signing the ETCA.