Two high officials of WTO-among them none other them the Chief of Trade Agreements-are in town for a high level trade information session by the Department of Commerce that opens in Colombo on 10 October .
โRegional Trade Agreements cover a wide range of WTO members and is a major player in todayโs global tradeโ said Minister of industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, welcoming the high level WTO trade experts to Colombo, and added:โWTO has always been supporting Sri Lankaโs trade development for which we thank them.โ
Chief of the Regional Trade Agreements Division of WTO Ms Rohini Acharya has a PhD in Economics and joined the WTOโs Trade Policies Review Division in 1996, becoming Chief of its Regional Trade Agreements Section in January 2007. Previously she worked as Senior Research Fellow at the International Economics Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London. Her work at the WTO has included the trade policy reviews of several WTO members, including Australia, Egypt, India, New Zealand and Singapore, and the first Trade Policy Review of China. Ms Jo- Ann Crwford (MA in Economics) is the author of a number of studies on RTAs and has also worked on several trade policy reviews, including that of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). She is an economist and has been with the RTA Section of the Trade Policies Review Division sinceย 1997.
The two day workshop ending on 11 October is organized by the Department of Commerce and will include top officials and participants from the Central Bank, the Treasury, BoI, reps from five Chambers and nine Lankan corporates in exports.
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress