US keen to increase trade with Sri Lanka

The United States is keen to increase trade with Sri Lanka as the island nation has shown an impressive economic growth, a top US official has said. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ms. Holly Vineyard who visited the island on January 17-19 has said that Sri Lanka's impressive economic growth is motivating the U.S. Department of Commerce to urge their companies to have a second look at the island nation.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary has said that Sri Lanka has shown "exciting" progress after the end of the war in May 2009 and the U.S. is interested in enhancing and diversifying trade between the two countries. "We are very keen to engage more with Sri Lanka as we see great opportunities for increasing trade through more partnerships," Ms. Vineyard has told media. "The U.S. is taking a more regional approach to increasing ties and we hope to identify specific opportunities during the mega Expo that Sri Lanka is organizing in March 2012," she has said. A meeting on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the United States and Sri Lanka is scheduled to be held in March to coincide with Sri Lanka Expo 2012 which will be held in Colombo. TIFA, signed in 2002, is the primary forum for bilateral trade and investment discussions between the two countries. The bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and the United States was over $1.9 billion in 2011. The U.S. Official has said that she would encourage the U.S. trade delegations to India to explore trade opportunities in Sri Lanka. She has also urged the Sri Lankan government to attend the hearing on January 24 in Washington and lobby for the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences to promote trade between the two countries. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) has filed a petition urging the US government to stop GSP benefits to Sri Lanka until Sri Lanka addresses its worker rights issues.