Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha De Silva announced that the Sri Lankan Government will take measures to sign a trade pact with the United Kingdom as soon as possible, following Britain's exit from the European Union.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Silva said 40 percent of agreements between Sri Lanka and the European Union is with the United Kingdom, thus, Sri Lanka will stand to lose 40 percent of the tax concessions which will be gained from winning back the European Union's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+) trade facility when the UK leaves European Union.
Hence, to minimize the consequences of Brexit, Sri Lanka should enter in to a trade agreement with the UK, he asserted.
The Minister further pointed that Colombo will also be affected by the global economic downturn post Britain's exit from the European Union, reports Colombo Page.
Silva added that Lanka campaigned with the British Government to convince the Britons to stay on in the Union as UK's exit will have a significant negative impact on Sri Lankan exports to the EU.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also expressed his view in an article to the UK's iNews that Sri Lanka is 'very concerned' about the probable impact of a British exit from the EU - on the global economy, on Sri Lanka, and on the UK.