"Regulations are required to establish minimum standards for us to practice," he said.
"If we do the same old freight forwarding, we'll never make Sri Lanka a logistics hub."
The association, which represents all stakeholders in the freight forwarding trade, has now re-opened talks with the authorities on drafting a new set of regulations, called the Freight Forwarders Licensing Act.
With the freight forwarding business in the island now 30 years old, Kadawatharatchie said, the industry believes it is mature enough to require stringent rules to prevent deterioration of the quality of services provided.
The government plan to license freight forwarders was opposed by all major players in the industry as it felt the minimum standards prescribed in the law were too low.
The United Nations trade and economic agencies too had expressed concern that Asia-Pacific freight forwarding standards were below the norm, Kadawatharatchie said.
"Freight forwarding in Sri Lanka is a 30-year-old industry and is quite matured. So we think there has to be rules and minimum standards for us to practice. That's why we're very keen.
"The industry objected to the regulations proposed by government as we felt that certain minimum standards they wanted to bring in were too low."
Since 2003, the association had been discussing with the Director of Merchant Shipping and Ports Ministry about the regulations for licensing of freight forwarders.
It had even made detailed submissions but the ministry went ahead and gazetted new regulations without consulting the association and not incorporating some of its vital submissions.
Because its requests were not considered by government agencies, SLFFA filed a case against the licensing regulations in the Appeal Court.
The Court issued an interim order staying the enforcement of the new regulations and later ruled in favour of the association, declaring the regulations as illegal and ordered that they be quashed.
Kadawatharatchie said the association believes proper regulation is required to keep up with international norms and standards set by the international federation of freight forwarders associations based in Switzerland, the world governing body of freight forwarders and logistics providers.
"The federation has set certain minimum standards which we need to follow. Freight forwarding is not a local industry. It's an international business and thus needs international standards."
The industry also needs a mechanism to police the trade which it felt was absent in the draft law proposed by the government and was another reason they opposed it.
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