{"id":150641,"date":"2025-07-10T16:16:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T23:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150641"},"modified":"2025-07-10T16:16:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T23:16:34","slug":"govt-should-be-ashamed-over-mishandling-of-u-s-tariff-deal-dayasiri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/07\/10\/govt-should-be-ashamed-over-mishandling-of-u-s-tariff-deal-dayasiri\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt should be ashamed over mishandling of U.S. tariff deal: Dayasiri"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><a class=\"glightbox h6 inner_other\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/author\/CHATURANGA-PRADEEP-SAMARAWICKRAMA\/88\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>\u00a0 Courtesy The Daily Mirror<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Colombo, July 10 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara today accused the government of mishandling tariff negotiations with the United States, claiming Sri Lanka had failed to secure meaningful benefits from the recent tariff reductions announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, Jayasekara said the National People\u2019s Power (NPP) government should be ashamed of its incompetence, noting that while Sri Lanka\u2019s tariff rate on exports to the U.S. was reduced from 44% to 30%, the country missed an opportunity for greater concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This cannot be called a positive moment for Sri Lanka,\u201d he remarked. If the government had conducted negotiations with a proper, constructive approach, the country could have secured more relief. The government boasting about this as a success is laughable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SL-US trade deficit needs to be reduced Current situation a result of govt.&#039;s attitudes\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WBuFHhQPqF0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Jayasekara pointed out that Sri Lanka could have obtained a larger reduction \u2014 possibly the highest among the countries listed by the U.S. President for tariff revisions \u2014 if it had approached talks strategically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also criticised the lack of an official government statement or strategy during the negotiations. They were too busy saying \u2018I am the one\u2019 instead of acting in the country\u2019s interest, and that has led us to this unfortunate situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Highlighting trade imbalances, the MP noted that Sri Lanka exports about USD 3 million worth of goods to the U.S. while importing USD 368 million. He urged the government to prioritise measures to narrow the USD 2.6 million trade gap, warning that continued inaction would further destabilise the already fragile economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this had been handled with the right vision and leadership, Sri Lanka could have capitalised on this opportunity,\u201d Jayasekara added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA\u00a0\u00a0 Courtesy The Daily Mirror Colombo, July 10 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara today accused the government of mishandling tariff negotiations with the United States, claiming Sri Lanka had failed to secure meaningful benefits from the recent tariff reductions announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}