Sri Lankan foreign minister raises concerns over Trump’s economic policies
By
Minusha Fernando
11 February 2017
US President Donald Trump’s trade threats and nationalist policies have shocked sections of the ruling elite in Sri Lanka as the island-nation faces an increasingly desperate economic crisis.
Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva gave voice to these concerns in an address to the National Chamber of Commerce annual meeting late last month in Colombo. Trump’s policies, de Silva said, could “dampen the global trade flow as never before” and would seriously impact on Sri Lanka’s economy.
President Maithripala Sirisena and his prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, are politically dependent on Washington. Sirisena came to power in 2015 as part of a US-orchestrated regime-change operation to bring the Sri Lankan government into line with Washington’s war preparation against China. The Obama administration opposed previous President Mahinda Rajapakse’s close economic and political relations with Beijing.
While Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have hailed Trump’s election victory and appealed for his support, their government is being hit by falling investment and declining export earnings, and they are acutely nervous about Trump’s economic policies.
De Silva told the National Chamber of Commerce that Trump’s policies were “inward looking, anti-trade and regressive and could dampen the global trade flows. Global trade, which has already slowed down from the heydays of the globalisation era, could further slow if US closes its borders for global goods and imposes taxes.”
De Silva said Trump’s claim that he would bring industrial jobs back to America was “a lot of rhetoric and it will stop soon… It seems that reality television is what Mr…