COLOMBO, Jul y 10: Sri Lanka would continue to engage with the US for a “mutually beneficial” outcome on tariffs, a top finance ministry official said on Thursday, after Washington imposed a 30 per cent tariff on all Sri Lankan imports to the country.
The US on Wednesday sent letters to the heads of seven countries, including Sri Lanka, imposing tariffs on their imports.
The letter addressed to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated the new 30 per cent tariff would come into force from August 1.
At a media briefing, Secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance Harshana Suriyapperuma said that the government’s response is to “continue to engage, assess the situation”, and get inputs from relevant stakeholders.
“Our approach is to make use of this space to the best possible advantage of Sri Lanka and to have a mutually beneficial outcome both for the US and for Sri Lanka as well,” he said.
“So, look at those areas and model a solution that is to be offered to them….that is the broad approach,” Suriyapperuma said.
Addressing the media briefing, Governor of the Central Bank Nandalal Weerasinghe said, “We can say we have made significant progress in the process so far. Obviously, we want to make more progress going forward.”
“We continue to engage with an intention to have a better solution going forward for Sri Lanka,” he added.
Washington’s move to impose the 30 per cent tariffs on Sri Lanka is part of a broader trade initiative targeting multiple countries.
The main opposition slammed the government, with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa saying that the 30 per cent was not adequate and it was the “price we pay for poor negotiations”.
Sri Lanka held two rounds of talks to negotiate the new tariff, which the analysts said would endanger 50,000 jobs in the export sector.
Economist Talal Rafi said that 30 per cent would be a hard hit to the local economy and added that Sri Lanka should have agreed to reduce the tariffs on US exports.
“Vietnam has got away with only 20 per cent because they agreed to eliminate duties on American goods,” Rafi said.
According to analysts, Sri Lanka’s 30 per cent tariff, a drop from the 44 per cent proposed in April, was the sharpest reduction among the countries targeted by the Trump administration.
In the US policy of correcting its trade imbalances globally, announced in April, the tariff was fixed at 44 per cent for Sri Lanka, half of the 88 per cent Colombo charges Washington for imports to the island nation.
Indonesia and Thailand’s tariffs remained unchanged at 32 and 36 per cent. Both countries are Sri Lanka’s competitors for rubber exports to the US.
Sri Lanka’s annual exports to the US were valued at USD 3 billion. (PTI)
