A Chinese fertiliser company, Seawin Biotech, has launched a legal case against Sri Lanka for turning away scheduled exports of fertilisers worth 49.7 million US dollars, the Global Times reported.
A ship loaded with 20,000 tons of fertilisers was heading to Sri Lanka, but it would now go to Singapore instead because Colombo has expressed concerns regarding the quality of the product.
Seawin, it is claimed, attempted to prove the quality of the fertilisers by sending batches of samples to the Chinese Customs Testing Center and the Swiss institute SGS for testing.
The China Center reported after an investigation that Seawin’s fertilisers do not contain Erwinia, a harmful bacteria that Sri Lanka alleged had been found in its imports.
It is understood that several meetings took place between the Sri Lankan side, the Chinese Embassy and representatives of the Chinese firm in an attempt to solve the issue, but to no avail.
Chinese Embassy officials told the Global Times that Sri Lanka backtracked from the deal that was initially signed and has been insincere in its efforts to achieve a settlement.
Seawin Biotech demanded that its exports were halted by Sri Lanka not due to issues related to quality but because of import permit disputes.
It also imposed other conditions to which Sri Lanka did not respond, pushing the firm to file an arbitration procedure in Singapore. A notice of the international arbitration has been sent to Sri Lanka.
Read more in the Global Times.
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