RI has no long term objective in facing WTO talks<\/p>\n
Gusmardi Bustami, Indonesian ambassador to the World Trade
\nOrganization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, has confirmed what
\nmany analysts have often said: That Indonesia was less prepared
\nthan many other nations for trade negotiations at the WTO forum
\ngiven the absence of long-term goals in the nation's trade
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
He thus called on the next government and business sector to
\nprepare the nation's trade blueprint.<\/p>\n
The ambassador was recently in Jakarta to garner inputs from
\nthe Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) for the
\nWTO talks. He gave an interview with The Jakarta Post's Zakki P.
\nHakim in between his busy schedule.<\/p>\n
The following is an excerpt of the interview:<\/p>\n
Question: Do we have a national agenda for negotiations in the
\nWTO?
\nAnswer: We have a national committee on WTO. A national team
\nwhich is responsible for determining our policy in the
\nnegotiations. The team is led by the Ministry of Industry and
\nTrade. The team includes subcommittees that work on services,
\nagricultural and nonagricultural sectors. The policy was then
\ndelivered to me as a basic reference for negotiations.<\/p>\n
What does the national agenda look like? Is it a kind of long-
\nterm guideline?<\/p>\n
That is exactly our problem. We are facing people with long-
\nterm objectives. If you do not have a long-term plan, imagine how
\nhard negotiations could be. This is the current reality. We have
\nno idea where we are heading to and what we want to achieve in a
\ncertain period. We do not have that (long-term) plan yet.<\/p>\n
What should the next government do then?<\/p>\n
The next government should come up with a long-term plan,
\nwhich we can use as a blueprint to defend and fight for in the
\ninternational arena. The people could also use the blueprint as a
\nbenchmark to evaluate the government's performance.
\nThe private sector, meanwhile, can play a significant role by
\nidentifying what it needs and forwarding it to the government
\nthrough, for example, Kadin.<\/p>\n
Do we need a separate institution to specifically handle
\ninternational trade issues?<\/p>\n
Looking at the global trend, it is advisable to establish one.
\nInternational trade issues can no longer be perceived as separate
\nfrom the national policies. Whatever we decide nationally, we
\nmust have a \"go international\" paradigm. Our domestic market of
\n220 million people is actually no longer adequate. The real
\nmarket potential is the world.<\/p>\n
Where is the world heading to anyway?<\/p>\n
The world is moving toward an open market, a more transparent
\none. If trade grows well, the global economy will naturally
\nfollow suit. Trade is the engine of economic growth. Of course,
\nwe still want to protect certain potential sectors in the
\ncountry. Such a measure is still allowed under the WTO. The
\nmeasure is called \"special and differential treatment\". We can
\nnot compete fairly against the United States and other
\nindustrialized nations, because of the difference in level of
\ncapacity. But, we should be able to catch up with them by a
\ncertain period. We do want to become a developed country one day,
\ndon't we?<\/p>\n
What do you expect from Kadin?<\/p>\n
The government must work alongside the private sector from now
\non. There is no reason to ignore complaints and inputs from
\nbusinesspeople in our joint effort to liberalize the market as
\nwell as to protect the domestic market.<\/p>\n
Of course, the government cannot address all complaints, as it
\nhas also to consider the social and political aspects aside from
\ncosts and benefits. Nevertheless, we need inputs from the private
\nsector that we could use as ammunition in the WTO talks. The
\ngovernment might know some issues, but we might miss several
\nothers.<\/p>\n
The private sector in the developed world, on the other hand,
\nhas been very active in providing information, both quantitative
\nand qualitative, to their governments.<\/p>\n
Therefore our private sector must establish and strengthen its
\nown research institutions, while the government must be proactive
\nin approaching businesspeople in acquiring the necessary
\ninformation. So it is two-way communication.<\/p>\n
I heard that Kadin is to provide the next government with an
\nindustry and trade road map. Short term recommendations are fine,
\nbut it should be complete with a long-term objective.<\/p>\n
The world is shifting toward services, and the WTO has encouraged
\nmember countries to submit by May next year proposals on service
\nsectors for negotiation. Is Indonesia ready?<\/p>\n
The service sector has been somewhat neglected. We know it
\nexists, but we do not know how big its contribution is to our
\neconomy. There should be a special institution to oversee the
\nwhole service sector. Currently each ministry claims to be
\nresponsible for related services.<\/p>\n
Frankly speaking Indonesia has no figures on the sector. But
\nnow, we must not step backwards. We need to identify the problems
\nin the sector. We must have some strength here. Our team is
\nworking on it.<\/p>\n
The July package (which was agreed upon by WTO members during the
\nlatest plenary meeting in Geneva) puts trade facilitation among
\nthe issues to be negotiated in the current round of talks. How
\nwill it impact us?<\/p>\n
Without good trade facilitation, anything we do will not work.
\nWe have to fix inadequate infrastructure, human resources and
\nport regulations.<\/p>\n
We need to identify the details on the current condition of
\nour infrastructure. If necessary, we could ask for technical and
\nfinancial assistance from developed countries. Should they refuse
\nto assist us, we could say, \"You are pushing us to fix our
\ninfrastructure, but why do you refuse to assist us?\".<\/p>\n
We could also ask for a certain (transition) schedule, during
\nwhich they could not file any complaint because we are still
\ndeveloping.<\/p>\n
However, we need to pay extra attention to local autonomy. We
\ndo not want to have local regulations that contradict our
\ninternational commitments. We need to anticipate that, or else we
\ncould receive complaints. It would be costly.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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