Sri Lanka tea board signs import agreement with India

The Tea Board of Sri Lanka and Tea Board of India yesterday signed a mutual recognition agreement for tea coming into each of the countries

According to the tea Board sources, it was a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and the agreement would enable free flow of tea into each other’s country without having to go through the process of testing.

According to the FTA with Sri Lanka, the Indian side allows a duty of 7.5 million up to 15 million kg of imports from Sri Lanka though the same is not applicable for Indian imports into Sri Lanka. For re-exports it’s zero duty in both countries.

Sri Lanka’s exports from orthodox tea stand at 1.2 billion U S Dollars and are to increase up to 1.5 billion U S Dollars.

A memorandum of understanding between the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka and Tea Research Association of India would be signed today in Assam, India on collaboration.

By Christine Hettiarachchi

Courtesy: Lankapuvath