Feb 28, Colombo : Sri Lankan government sources say the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and Pakistan has brought a favourable trade balance for Sri Lanka.

Quoting Ijaz Abbasi, the President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sri Lanka’s Government Information Department says the balance had previously been in favour of Pakistan.

The FTA signed on August 1, 2002, came into force on June 12, 2005. The trade between the two countries has almost doubled since then. It was worth US$ 170 million at the time the FTA came into force. By January 2007 it had grown to US$ 270 million.

Representatives of the two countries met in Islamabad and decided on January 31, 2008, to expand the FTA to increase bilateral trade to US$ 1 billion, sources added.