The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Maldives and China will be damaging to the Maldives’ economic independence, Chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Fayyaz Ismail has said.
Speaking at a panel discussion titled ‘Havaru Beru‘, Ismail said the benefits of an FTA go to exporting countries and the Maldives is not an exporting country.
So far, the Maldives has long-established trade links, but the China FTA will break those links, he said.
“This is a country that imports 95 percent of the goods we need. Economic independence can be maintained by maintaining trade independence. We have to have a very strong policy when importing goods in an importing country like ours,” he said.
According to Ismail, if the Maldives imposes no duty on Chinese imports, local businesses will be forced to rely on China because they will not be able to compete with goods imported from China and other countries.
A total of 7,897 items across nine sectors will be exempt from the Maldives’ exports to China when the FTA goes into effect — also removing levies on 298 species of fishery products.
While the FTA with China will come into force this September, the hope is to sign similar agreement with India and other nations, President Mohamed Muizzu had said during Independence Day commemorations last Friday.
The first attempt to cement an FTA with China began during the Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom administration, however, the MDP aligned administration which followed chose not to implement the agreement, opting instead to prioritise relations with India while reducing engagement with China.