http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/menu-237/0709192354155451.htm
*India, Sri Lanka set for greater bilateral cooperation* New Delhi, Sept 19, IRNA India-Sri Lanka-Bilateral Cooperation India's Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Kamal Nath has expressed hope that the outstanding issues relating to the operationalization of TRQ of vanaspati including bakery shortening and margarine and import of marble and copper from Sri Lanka to India would be negotiated soon to further increase the Indo-Sri Lankan bilateral trade. Observing that the bilateral trade has increased from US $ 1497 million in 2004-05 to USD 2590 million in 2005-06 and has been valued at USD 2462.28million in 2006-07, Kamal Nath hoped that the increase in the coming years would be substantial. This was stated by the Indian Commerce Minister when Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion of Sri Lanka, called on him here Tuesday, an official release issued here said. India is the dominant partner in the bilateral economic relations with Sri Lanka, as almost 15 per cent- 20 per cent of total Sri Lankan imports are accounted for by India. With an investment of USD 400-500 million in FDI, India is also amongst the fourth largest investor in Sri Lanka. During the ongoing negotiations, India has already agreed to prove Sri Lankan garment industry a TRQ of 3 million pieces of garments without any condition of sourcing of fabrics and port restrictions. Further cooperation between the two countries include bilateral cooperation agreement (MOU) on product, quality, certification and testing that has been signed between Sri Lankan Standards Institute and Bureau of Indian Standards. This is expected to benefit both the countries in areas related to standardization, quality and certification of products. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
