CENTRE
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE/FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SRI LANKA
SINGAPORE-
SRI LANKA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
DEVIL
IS IN THE SRI LANKA IMPORT-EXPORT LIST
Sri Lanka is one of the highly indebted
country due to its mismanagement in the economy and the governance in the
recent years. The issues are interconnected to the 30 year civil war, lack of a
national development vision, excessive borrowings, overdevelopment of
infrastructure with no feasibilities, high dependence of China and corrupt governance
system. Sri Lanka being a strategic location of the China Belt Road Initiative
and recent crisis in the global waste management including China’s restriction
to import waste for recycling industry, Ministry of Megapolis plan to establish
three waste to energy plants in Sri Lanka, Chinese contract for the Arruwakkaru
waste landfill and Chinese plan for Hambanthota, lack of proper enforcement of
the National Environmental (Protection and
Quality) Regulations, No. 1 of 2008 enacted under the National Environmental act No
47of 1980 are few factors to consider when analyzing the recently signed
Singapore- Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.
This appears to be a pretty standard free trade
agreement entered into bi-laterally by two countries similar to other Free
trade agreements under Article XXIV of GATT 1994
and Article V of GATS. GATT 1994 means the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade 1994 contained in Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement. It covers, Elimination
of Custom duties, intellectual property rights, telecommunications, Health,
environment and several other areas. However,
in my opinion devil is in the Sri Lanka export and import list in the Appendix
2-A-1 Tariff Schedule Sri Lanka which
has made free importation of the goods and material which are even banned in
Sri Lanka for many years ago. The issue seems that when we enter into global
agreements, we have not made our policies and regulations corrected and updated
adequately and timely manner.
According to the Department of Import and Export control website “Necessary steps have been taken to control or ban
critical items that has harmful effect to the environment and public security
according to the International Conventions such as Basel, Rotterdam and
Stockholm’s. Eg. Banning of Glyphosate. Further, two third of the shelf life is
an essential requirement for importation of pharmaceuticals and it is a
critical step that has been taken to avoid expired drugs”. It further state
that Since, Sri Lanka situated in a prime location in the Indian Ocean and mid
of the Silk Road, world has identified Sri Lanka is a good trans-shipment point
for international trade. Apart from that Chinese and Indian trade expansion
policies give us a sign to develop a sound policy framework in the border
protection and international trade relations.”
This proves that the FTA
signed between Sri Lanka and Singapore has something to do with the
transshipment. However, there is high probability of dumping such material in
Sri Lankan soil and also using them as raw material in some dirty industries
which might come in the proposed industrial zones including one proposed by
China in Hambanthota. Perhaps this is the business that China is looking for
using Hambanthota harbor. Therefore, having strong customs regulation and
cleaning import export list is crucial.
Banned Waste categories are free
to import- Some
of the items in the Export-Import list are prohibited products. For Eg. Sri
Lanka has banned importation of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) in 1979. PCB
was officially banned worldwide under the Stockholm Convention in 2001. But our
Export-Import list still allows them. This FTA allows importation of PCB, PCB
contaminated or containing items free under different HS codes including 29039913. Although the Gazette Extraordinary
2044/40 of 9th November /2017
published under the Import and Export Control Act No 1 or 1969 has banned some
of these items, it does not reflect in the FTA annex referring to the Tariff
Schedule in Sri Lanka.
Similarly, DDT is one of the
banned items in Sri Lanka since 1976. But the FTA allows importing DDT under HS
code 29039220 free to Sri Lanka. Endrin, Dieldrin
and many other such banned pesticides and weedicides are included in the list
of items to import free.
There are various types of wastes
in both Sri Lanka Singapore lists. For eg: HS codes 12130010- Waste straw,
26211000-Ash and residues from the incineration of municipal waste, 28053010-Waste
and scrap of rare-earth metals, 30069200-Waste pharmaceuticals, 38251000 - Municipal
waste, 38252000-Sewage sludge, 38253000 - Clinical waste, 40040020-Waste, -
Scrap and waste of Micro cellular, 47079000- Other paper/paper board, including
unsorted waste and scrap, 68101110-Building blocks & bricks-concrete cement
blocks encasing industrial waste sludge, 68109910-Other - Concrete cement
blocks encasing industrial waste sludge, 70010010-Waste and scrap containing
lithium-tantalum and lithium niobium, 75030000-Nickel waste and scrap 78020000-Lead
waste and scrap, 81019700 Waste and scrap, 81053000-Waste and scrap of cobalt
etc. There are many other type of waste included in Sri Lanka list with free of
custom duties. Some are harmful to the environment and some are not. Meanwhile
some waste can be used as raw material
and some are just waste.
Environmental regulations in Sri
Lanka- The
government of Sri Lanka trying to bring market solutions to heals in debt. Yet
the proposed solutions may be more damaging to the country’s environment and health
of people. This is an issue that needs to be addressed politically as well as
legally and economically.
The issues related to the waste
dumping and Sri Lanka becoming a dumping yard of Asia is very possible under
this highly indebted situation. Lack of waste law enforcement in Sri Lanka is
an added factor. Strengthening and enforcing our waste importation and handling
hazardous waste regulation is not satisfactory.
In comparison, Singapore has a
better regulation and a proper law enforcement. Most items in the Singapore
Customs list do not generate within its territories. In fact, Singapore is a
transit point being a service provider to shipping lines. Singapore also produce
about 60,000 Metric tonnes (MT) electronic waste annually as reported in 2018.
The total generation is about 7.5million MT a year which only 4.5 million MT
goes for recycling.
Basel
convention-
It appears that Basel
regulations could be the only hope if there is scheduled waste import under
this FTA. However, in general there are major gaps in implementing the
environmental laws in Sri Lanka due to the unnecessary political interventions.
Sri Lanka ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal in 1992 and had taken some steps
to ensure implementation of its provisions. Implementation of
the National obligations on Import, Export and Transit of waste listed in the
Basel Convention is carried out by the CEA as the National Competent Authority
for the Basel convention. Singapore
has a good set of regulations to control transboundary movement of hazardous
waste.
As Sri Lanka does not have disposal facilities the importation
of List A waste of the Basel convention is not allowed. For the importation of
List B waste of the Basel convention a proposal should be submitted by the
Importer/ Industrialist to the CEA/BOI. Then the proposal is been circulated
among the members of the Technical Committee for the implementation of the
Basel Convention for comments. Based upon TEC recommendations Importation is
approved under conditions/not approved with reasons. The ports Authority &
the Sri Lanka Customs are also informed of the decision taken. But this process is not necessarily follow
all the time.
Intellectual property- According to the
critiques, most developing countries don't have adequate laws to protect
patents, inventions, and new processes. The laws they do have aren't always
strictly enforced. As a result, corporations often have their ideas stolen. The
FTA between Sri Lanka and Singapore says that “The
Parties shall explore cooperation in the granting of patents on the basis of
applications filed by applicants of a Party in the other Party, and patent
examination and work sharing”. This is an area that Sri Lanka need to be
worried as our Intellectual properties are very much vulnerable due to the lack
of strong regulations. Sri Lanka being a place with long history, it has many
traditional knowledge which can be threatened due to this FTA.
Environment and health- The FTA somehow has a provision to suspend its
operation in related to safety. The article 5.14 sectoral annexes state “Where
urgent problems of safety, health, consumer or environment protection or
national security arise or threaten to arise for a Party, that Party may
suspend the operation of any Sectoral Annex, in whole or in part, immediately.
In such a case, the Party shall immediately advise the other Party of the
nature of the urgent problem, the products covered and the objective and
rationale of the suspension”.
The FTA between Singapore and Sri Lanka need to
look at as an agreement between a weak and a strong regulator in related to
trade, investment and environment. Singapore has no natural environment to save
in comparison to Sri Lanka. In my opinion Sri Lanka is more vulnerable to
environmental pollution, losing intellectual property rights unless we pay more
attention. It’s the time to look at these aspects and adequacy of our laws,
regulations and enforcement before moving further. (END)
