May 13, Colombo (LNW): The newly established ‘Office of International Trade’ (OIT) within the President’s office has conveyed its staffing challenges to the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF), Committee Chief MP (Dr.) Harsha De Silva told Parliament today (13).
According to the Opposition MP, A.G. Weerasinghe, the chief negotiator of the OIT, informed CoPF that the office lacks adequate personnel to conduct feasibility studies on pending Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China and Thailand.
In light of this, Dr. Silva proposed a decision-making process regarding the future of the Department of Commerce.
He suggested that considerations should be made on whether to maintain or close down the Department of Commerce.
Furthermore, he indicated the possibility of transferring officers from the Department of Commerce to the OIT should the decision be made to cease operations of the Commerce Department.
