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Colombo, Sri Lanka
The Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy has blacklisted Peopleâs Bank of Sri Lanka over failure to make a payment. This is the latest episode in the ongoing row over a fertiliser shipment between the two countries.
State-owned Ceylon Fertilizer Company had secured a court order to block the payment of $4.9 million to Qingdao Seawin Biotech over the shipment of fertiliser which was found to be contaminated. The order prevented the Sri Lankan bank from making payments under a Letter of Credit opened in favour of the Chinese company.
Timeline:
Seawin won open bid, signed contracts, passed tests of China and Int'l agency designated by Ceylon Fertilizer, shipped before due.
NPQ SL disagreed in halfway, called toxic/harmful.
Ship refused. Third party test refused. L/C payment obligation refused.
PBSL blacklisted pic.twitter.com/mMbzqxdwJi
â Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) October 29, 2021
The state-owned commercial bank did not make payment for the fertiliser exported by China under a contract between the two parties.
The embassy has warned all Chinese enterprises against accepting any letter of credit from the bank, according to News 1st, a Sri Lankan media outlet.
The embassy's move came after Sri Lanka barred a Chinese ship carrying desperately needed organic fertiliser that experts had found to be tainted with harmful bacteria.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office had said that the National Plant Quarantine Services tested a sample from the unnamed Chinese vessel and "confirmed the presence of organisms, including certain types of harmful bacteria".
Sri Lanka Ports Authority said the agricultural ministry ordered them to prevent the unloading of the fertiliser in any port and to turn away the Chinese vessel.
Sri Lankaâs Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage had refused to conduct a re-test for the Chinese organic fertiliser.
The country originally ordered the organic fertiliser from China as part of its efforts to become the world's first 100 per cent organic farming nation.
The organic plant nutrients from China were meant to replace the phased-out chemicals during the main rice cultivation season that started October 15.
(With inputs from agencies)