Professional bodies flay SL’s ETCA negotiators
* Indians penetrate SL’s most highly regulated profession with ease
* Shortcomings in SL’s regulatory framework for professions highlighted
* SL CEPA/ETCA negotiators declared incompetent compared to Indian counterparts
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March 26, 2016, 6:16 pm
Even though the Joint Opposition’s rally at Hyde Park on 17 March was held mainly to oppose the proposed ETCA with India and to highlight other issues such as the changes in the fertiliser subsidy and the low price of paddy, these objectives were completely lost among the large crowds and it became another ‘bring Mahinda back’ rally. Last week professional groups were busy clawing back public attention to what is undoubtedly the most important immediate issue facing Sri Lanka – the proposed ETCA which the prime minister has said would be signed no matter how intense the opposition to it. The professional associations opposing ETCA organised a seminar at the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) auditorium on Wednesday last week where a number of presentations were made by Dr Anuruddha Padeniya, Dr Lalithsiri Gunaruwan, Prof. Sumanasiri Liyanage, Nalaka Jayaweera and others.
The presentation made by Nalaka Jayaweera - a Chartered Architect - raised certain serious issues about the proposed ETCA which have not been highlighted sufficiently up to now. In the absence of a detailed draft of ETCA, Jayaweera harked back to the abandoned CEPA to extrapolate what ETCA would envisage in terms of trade in services between India and Sri Lanka. Such an approach is certainly valid because it is in place of CEPA that the ETCA proposal has been brought forward. Furthermore, the ETCA framework agreement that is in the public domain now clearly indicates that trade in services will be one of its objectives and in fact the government has already announced that in the first instance the IT and naval engineering fields will be opened up to India. The 2003 joint Statement of the India- Sri Lanka Joint Study Group on CEPA envisaged the following in terms of the trade in services:
