Quotas on apparel and tea have been poorly utilised and has not really taken off, Sunjay Sudhir, Counsellor, Economic and Commercial at the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka, told an Export Development Board conference on Tuesday.
India is to come up with a more favourable package to further liberalise apparel exports from Sri Lanka to India, Sudhir said.
Under the Indo-Lanka trade agreement, India has allowed certain export quotas of apparel, textiles and tea from Sri Lanka, under concessionary tariffs.
Under this scheme, select quantities of these Sri Lankan exports will enjoy a margin of preference on the general tariffs that are applicable.
Sri Lanka can export eight million pieces of garments, most of which enjoys 50 percent preferential margin over the general rate of tariffs applied by India.
But less than one million pieces of clothes are exported from Sri Lanka to India under the six year old trade agreement.
One of the main reasons has been t