Sri Lanka urges India to remove trade barriers for better economic cooperation

Sri Lanka on Friday urged India to remove trade barriers for better economic cooperation among South Asian nations, saying the move by the neighbouring country to restrict exports of onions has a massive impact on prices there. Speaking at the India Economic Summit here, Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution of Sri Lanka Harsha de Silva asked India to remove restrictions on import of tea from Sri Lanka.

"India banned export of onions in the last few weeks, perhaps you may not realise it but in small countries like ours, it has major impact on prices," he said. Last month, India had banned exports of onion and imposed stock limit on traders to ensure domestic availability amid rising prices of the kitchen staple, which had touched Rs 80 per kg.

The Centre had also stopped immediately shipments of onion at below minimum export prices to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and warned violators of strict action. Regarding export of tea to India, Silva further said "we would like to see barriers brought down and quotas removed".

On these things, he said, "We don't need to compete, we can collaborate. So, trade barriers and restrictions among our countries in this region must seriously be brought down." PTI KPM RKL HRS

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