Indonesia told to boost G-33 alliance<\/p>\n
Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia should play a leading role in the Group of 33
\ndeveloping nations alliance to protect the interests of
\ndeveloping countries in future World Trade Organization (WTO)
\nnegotiations, experts said in a seminar here on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Despite the few significant gains secured by developing
\ncountries in the latest WTO meeting in Geneva earlier this month,
\nmost participants had welcomed their increasing role in the
\nnegotiations, Malaysian-based Third World Network director Martin
\nKhor said.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia, as the leader of G-33 should continue this
\nprogress and take a strong position, standing up for its national
\ninterests,\" Khor told a seminar held by the Ministry of Foreign
\nAffairs.<\/p>\n
The seminar, titled \"Steps Indonesia must take after the WTO's
\nJuly package agreement\", also featured Indonesian Anti-Dumping
\nCommittee chairwoman Halida Miljani and Bogor Institute of
\nAgriculture economics director Bayu Krisnamurthi.<\/p>\n
Khor said there were two significant benefits gained from the
\nGeneva meeting for developing countries. All countries at the
\nforum signed a commitment to eliminate export subsidies for
\nagricultural products. They also agreed to place the three
\n\"Singapore issues\" outside the negotiating agenda of the Doha
\nwork program.<\/p>\n
During the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Singapore in 1996,
\nmembers proposed the issues of trade facilitation, investment,
\ncompetition and transparency in government procurement be
\ndiscussed during future meetings.<\/p>\n
The Geneva meeting dropped investment, competition and
\ntransparency in government procurement from the agenda, but
\nmaintained trade facilitation as an issue to be discussed.<\/p>\n
Khor said that Indonesia as the leader of the G-33 should push
\nfor a clearer schedule for the elimination of export subsidies,
\nas the July package had not fixed an end date or a road-map for
\nthe elimination.<\/p>\n
The developing countries had succeeded pushing the Special
\nProducts and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SP-SSM) into the
\npackage, however details on categories and the number of products
\nincluded needed to be further negotiated, he said.<\/p>\n
In view of this, Indonesia and other developing countries
\nshould hire experts to formulate the SP-SSM in line with each
\ncountry's national interests, Khor said.<\/p>\n
Developing countries should also research the domestic support
\ngiven to industries in rich countries, especially the U.S. and
\nEuropean Union, as some of these trade-distorting subsidies were
\ndisguised as non-distorting ones, he said.<\/p>\n
Khor's main concern was the adoption in the July package of a
\nframework on non-agricultural market access (NAMA), an agreement
\nto remove tariffs on industrial goods, which he said could
\nthreaten industries in many developing countries.<\/p>\n
The NAMA framework required developing countries to give up
\ntheir flexibility to choose how many tariffs on industrial
\nproducts they would lift and at what rate, he said.<\/p>\n
Many developing countries in Africa, Latin America and the
\nCaribbean had already suffered from a \"deindustrialization\"
\nprocess due to the influx of cheap imports of industrial products
\nas a result of rapid liberalization, he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce international
\ncooperation section vice chairman John A. Prasetio said Indonesia
\nalso faced similar threats, as most, if not all, local industries
\nwere inefficient compared with their overseas competitors.<\/p>\n
The cheap imports were damaging local economies and eventually
\nled to higher unemployment, he said.<\/p>\n
\"We must have a master plan identifying and listing our main
\nindustries. The plan should serve as our base in international
\nand regional negotiations,\" John said.<\/p>",
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