Indonesia hails new WTO trade round talks<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government was satisfied with the outcome of the World
\nTrade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in the Qatari
\ncapital of Doha, a minister said on Thursday, citing that some of
\nIndonesia's demands had been accepted at the meeting.<\/p>\n
"It's generally good. Some of our demands were met at the
\nmeeting," Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi said on
\nthe sidelines of a trade discussion.<\/p>\n
For instance, Rini said, Indonesia along with other farm-
\nproduct exporting countries grouped in the Australia-led Cairns
\nGroup had succeeded in getting the "phasing out" of farm export
\nsubsidies included in the agenda of the new round of free trade
\ntalks launched at the Doha meeting.<\/p>\n
Farm subsidies were one of the main sticking points during the
\nDoha meeting which pitted the European Union (EU) against the
\nCairns Group and the United States.<\/p>\n
The Cairns Group and the U.S. first insisted that the
\nelimination of agricultural export subsidies should be one of the
\nagendas of the new round of trade talks, but the EU firmly
\nrejected this proposal.<\/p>\n
The Doha meeting finally agreed on the phrase "phasing out
\nwithout prejudging the outcome" rather than "elimination".<\/p>\n
Ministers at the Doha meeting agreed on Wednesday to launch a
\nnew round of trade talks, called the Doha round, after days of
\ntough negotiations.<\/p>\n
Rini said the Doha agreement would enable agricultural
\nproducts from developing countries to compete with those from
\ndeveloped countries.<\/p>\n
Rini did not provide further details of the Doha agreements in
\nso far as they addressed Indonesia's concerns.<\/p>",
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