15 October 2025 ROOM W

Thank you, Chair. 

Good morning, colleagues.

First of all, I would like to extend my warm welcome to the Delegation of Sri Lanka, led by the Honourable Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development. I want to thank the Discussant, Ambassador of Cambodia Prasith Suon, for your insightful comments. My thanks also go to the Secretariat and the Government of Sri Lanka for their dedicated work for the preparation of the TPR reports.

During the review period from 2016 to 2024, Sri Lanka has suffered multiple shocks, from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to the economic downturn. Thanks to the country’s timely policy adjustment and continuous effort in structural reforms, it is noted with pleasure that Sri Lanka’s economic growth rates rebounded to 5.0% last year. We welcome measures taken by the government of Sri Lanka to reduce trade costs, diversify the export base and strengthen the financial system. We encourage the government of Sri Lanka to deepen its reform efforts to consolidate the hard-won gains in economic growth. In particular, we encourage further predictability in the tax regime that supports the private sector and further empowers small and medium-sized enterprises. Yesterday, President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya of Sri Lanka, who is in China attending the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women. We commend the government of Sri Lanka for its initiatives to enhance women’s participation in the labour market and encourage it to continue advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Sri Lanka is an original Member of the WTO. China welcomes its continued and substantive engagement in the multilateral trading system, as evidenced by its acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies in 2025 and the Trade Facilitation Agreement in 2016. We are pleased to acknowledge the progress made by Sri Lanka in fulfilling its notification obligations, most recently the notification regarding Article 16 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. We encourage Sri Lanka to deepen its engagement in the work of the WTO and the broader multilateral system, such as IFD.   

Chair,

China and Sri Lanka have enjoyed 68 years of diplomatic relations during which our two nations have developed a strategic cooperative partnership based on sincere mutual assistance and everlasting friendship. In January this year, the President of Sri Lanka paid a successful state visit to China and met with President Xi Jinping. The leaders of the two countries reached a series of important understandings, including jointly building a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future, elevating bilateral relations to a new height. In the economy and trade field, the two sides agreed to speed up a comprehensive free trade agreement negotiation and strengthen cooperation in logistics, green development, and the digital economy for shared and high-quality growth.

Sri Lanka is also an important cooperative partner of China in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 21^st-Century Maritime Silk Road. China is Sri Lanka’s second largest trading partner, a major source of foreign investment, and a key provider of development assistance. We look forward to strengthening economic and trade cooperation between our two countries, including by concluding a comprehensive free trade agreement with Sri Lanka at an early stage.

Sri Lanka is continuously pursuing outward-looking economic policies to boost its economic development. China has always firmly believed that openness is a key driving force behind the progress of human civilizations and a path toward global prosperity and development. We appreciate Sri Lanka’s strategic commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism, and look forward to working together to reaffirm and uphold our firm commitment to the rules-based multilateral trading system and safeguard its core values and principles.

Chair,

For the purpose of this review, China has submitted questions to Sri Lanka, and we are looking forward to receiving replies at an early stage. We wish Sri Lanka’s Trade Policy Review a full success.

Thank you, Chair.