Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer has stated legislations are needed to operationalise the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between the Maldives and China during the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen.
The finance minister made the statement in response to a question by Parliamentarian Abdulla Jabir on why local fishermen have not been able to reap the benefits from the Maldives-China FTA. Minister Ameer said the FTA will not be operational unless the relevant legislations are passed by the parliament. He said there is no significance of a signed FTA without the required legislations.
Speaking on the FTA, Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed expressed belief there is no such agreement currently in place as the previous administration did not fulfill the formalities to turn it into an operational agreement. Citing Clause 65 of the Article, Speaker Nasheed said the legislations relevant to the FTA were required to be passed within 30 days of signing the agreement for it to be functional. However, he said the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen had not done anything to operationalise the FTA.
The Maldives-China FTA was signed on December 7, 2017. It was part of the 12 agreements signed with China by the previous administration.
On December 19, 2018, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said the details of the agreements signed with China were not available. He said the administration was working on acquiring the details of all the agreements.