{"id":45574,"date":"2016-03-07T02:22:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45574"},"modified":"2016-03-07T02:27:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:27:34","slug":"indian-high-commissioner-yk-sinha-combats-ex-president-mahinda-rajapaksa-and-joint-opposition-over-ecta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45574","title":{"rendered":"Indian High Commissioner YK Sinha Combats Ex- President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Joint Opposition Over ECTA"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

T.Ramakrishnan<\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha has taken on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Joint Opposition, an informal coalition of pro-Rajapaksa parties and groups, over the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Referring to reported observations of the former President and members of the Joint Opposition against the ETCA, Mr. Sinha, who did not mention the name of any Sri Lankan leader opposing the pact, told members of the Sri Lanka-India Society on Friday that he was \u201csurprised\u201d to come across Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s statements in sections of the local press on the issue. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Recalls CEPA talks<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s government that held negotiations with India over the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which had included \u201ctrade in services.\u201d He described as \u201cquite amusing\u201d the statements of members of the Joint Opposition, some of whom were Ministers during the Rajapaksa regime, when the CEPA, he said, was negotiated.<\/p>\n

Mr Sinha\u2019s response was in the context of views expressed in certain quarters that the proposed ETCA would deprive job opportunities for Sri Lankans in a host of fields including information technology and the Free Trade Agreement, effective since March 2000, had not been beneficial to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstrained to join the debate\u201d<\/p>\n

Qualifying his rebuttal, the diplomat said \u201cI hesitate to get into the political controversy\u201d but he felt \u201cconstrained\u201d to join the debate because \u201cI do not think we should let naysayers take all the public space on this issue without anyone else trying to put the facts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Emphasising that he had not seen any draft text of the ETCA, he said what he received \u201ctwo days ago\u201d was a draft text of the framework agreement, which might form the basis for further negotiations. He hastened to add that the draft framework agreement \u201cis not necessarily an indication\u201d of the nature and coverage of the discussions to be held in future.<\/p>\n

Says 2005-2008 talks \u201calmost concluded\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Giving an account of the CEPA negotiations during 2005-2008 (when Mr. Rajapaksa was President), he said the CEPA, \u201cwhich is [now] a dirty word here,\u201d was \u201calmost concluded.\u201d Sixteen rounds of negotiations were held, many of which were \u201cdetailed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even the two countries had \u201ctentatively\u201d agreed on a draft. \u201cAt the last minute, the Government of Sri Lanka indicated its inability to sign that agreement,\u201d which was subsequently \u201cshelved.\u201d
\nOpening two sectors against India\u2019s 80 <\/p>\n

As part of the now-aborted agreement, under Mode 4 [of the General Agreement on Trade in Services] which pertained to \u201cmovement of natural persons,\u201d Sri Lanka had agreed to open up two sectors — marine ship building and information technology (IT)\/ IT-Enabled Services, both of which were \u201cvery limited fields,\u201d while India would throw open nearly 80 sectors. <\/p>\n

Even in the respect of the two fields of the services sector, it was sought to be done at the request of the government of Sri Lanka, which felt that India could help it immensely. \u201cWe do not know what the ETCA will do because serious negotiations have not begun,\u201d Mr. Sinha pointed out.<\/p>\n


\nHow the pact began <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tracing the genesis of the proposed pact, the High Commissioner said Sri Lanka\u2019s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, during his visit to New Delhi in September, had set \u201cvery ambitious timelines,\u201d according to which the framework agreement should be concluded by 2015 end or 2016 early and the final agreement by June 2016. <\/p>\n

The diplomat expressed the hope that there would be an understanding over the framework of the ETCA soon.
\nIndian investment since 2003<\/p>\n

On the rationale behind the fresh pact, he said there was no formal agreement in place to regularise \u201cinvestment and services\u201d even though India invested $one billion since 2003 and another $1.5 billion to 2 billion was in the pipeline, apart from the existence of three modes of trade in services and the issue of 350-400 employment visas by Indian High Commission to Sri Lankan nationals last year.<\/p>\n

Terming \u201cabsurd\u201d the argument that the 16-year-old FTA had not been beneficial to Sri Lanka, he said that in 1999, the value of Sri Lankan exports to India was $49 million and this went up to $645 million in 2015. Noting that there had not been much increase in the value of Sri Lankan exports since 2005, he raised the question whether this was due to \u201climited\u201d base of the exports. He added that that the regulatory framework in India was \u201cnon-discriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u2018Ambulance service not linked to ETCA\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Emergency Ambulance Health Protection Service, modelled on the lines of the \u201c108 Emergency Response Services\u201d of India and being implemented with Indian government\u2019s grant of $ 7.55 million, has nothing to do with the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), Mr. Sinha has said.
\nExpressing dismay over the controversy on the launch of the scheme, Mr. Sinha said the service was in response to a \u201cspecific request\u201d made by Sri Lanka\u2019s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to his counterpart Narendra Modi during the latter\u2019s visit here last year. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe were not that keen\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Admitting that originally, the Indian side was not \u201cthat keen\u201d when the request was made, the High Commissioner said this was because India had already extended its portfolio and it was providing assistance of over $2.6 billion (grants and loans combined). But, the service eventually came through as Mr. Wickremesinghe had followed up the matter with a formal letter and some Sri Lankan Ministers had visited India to study how the service was working.<\/p>\n

He clarified that ambulances would be registered in the name of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine in the government of Sri Lanka and not that of GVKEMRI of India, the implementing agency in the initial phase. The service would be offered free of charge as long as the Indian government was funding it, he added.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By T.Ramakrishnan India\u2019s High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha has taken on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Joint Opposition, an informal coalition of pro-Rajapaksa parties and groups, over the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between India and Sri Lanka. Referring to reported observations of the former President and members of the Joint Opposition against …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Indian High Commissioner YK Sinha Combats Ex- President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Joint Opposition Over ECTA’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45575,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45574\/revisions\/45575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}