Sri Lanka and Pakistan are looking to expand bilateral trade through tighter private-sector cooperation, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) said following a business meeting with a delegation from the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) at EDB premises in Colombo.
Discussions covered improved trade facilitation, greater utilisation of the Sri Lanka–Pakistan Free Trade Agreement signed in 2005, and stronger business-to-business engagement. Both sides expressed “confidence in further strengthening bilateral trade relations and long-term economic cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan,” the EDB said.
EDB Chairman Mangala Wijesinghe led the Sri Lankan side. The KCCI delegation was led by its Senior Vice President Muhammad Raza, with Tilan M. Wijesooriya, Acting Secretary General of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), and an Associate Director of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry also attending.
The 21-year-old Sri Lanka–Pakistan FTA grants duty-free access to a defined list of goods and has been a structural driver of bilateral merchandise trade, but utilisation has consistently lagged the headline tariff concessions. Sri Lankan exporters cite non-tariff measures, freight cost and limited B2B familiarity as constraints; the EDB and KCCI say closer chamber-to-chamber linkages are intended to address those frictions.
The meeting comes a day after India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka publicly fact-checked Chinese officials’ claim that China is now Sri Lanka’s largest trade partner — the latest signal that South Asian trade diplomacy in Colombo has become a more active battleground.
