RI supports liberalization on fish and forest products<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia supports liberalization on forest
\nproducts, fish and fish products under the Asia Pacific Economic
\nCooperation (APEC) forum but is still undecided on chemical and
\nenvironmental products, an official said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Director general of international economic relations at the
\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs, Soemadi DM Brotodiningrat, said the
\nfour sectors were an amalgamation of 61 sectors put forward by 18
\nAPEC economies at the last senior officials meeting in St. John,
\nNewfoundland, Canada, last week.<\/p>\n
\"Two of the four sectors are our choice, namely fish and fish
\nproducts and forest products,\" Soemadi said in a seminar at the
\nCentre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).<\/p>\n
Originally, Soemadi said, Indonesia proposed three sectors:
\nfish and fish products, pulp and paper and sports footwear. The
\nfirst two gained some support.<\/p>\n
He said Indonesia could not yet support liberalization of
\nenvironmental products and chemical products because Indonesia
\nwas not strong enough in the two sectors.<\/p>\n
\"Although we are a net importer of environmental products, it
\ndoes not mean we can not agree on liberalization of those
\nproducts. As long as it benefits us, we will support it,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Soemadi, who headed Indonesian delegations at various APEC
\nsenior officials meetings, said the four sectors would be put
\ntogether in the so-called \"balanced package of liberalization\".<\/p>\n
Therefore, if one member agreed to join liberalization, it
\nautomatically agreed to adopt liberalization for all sectors in
\nthe package.<\/p>\n
But most developing APEC economies still had questions
\nregarding liberalization. If those questions could not be
\naddressed by developed members, they might not support
\nliberalization at all, Soemadi said.<\/p>\n
They questioned whether the planned liberalization would
\neventually be taken to the World Trade Organization (WTO) like
\nthe Information Technology Agreement (ITA).<\/p>\n
In their last meeting in Subic last November, APEC leaders
\nagreed to pursue information technology liberalization. But a
\nmonth later, the United States took such an agreement to a WTO
\nministerial meeting in Singapore, which then produced the ITA.<\/p>\n
Developing countries questioned if liberalization would be
\nimplemented on the basis of most favored nations or reciprocity
\nprinciples.<\/p>\n
They also wanted to know whether liberalization would give a
\ndifferent time frame to developed and developing members in its
\nimplementation.<\/p>\n
They demanded that economic and technical cooperation
\nprinciples, which had become the forgotten pillar in APEC, be
\nincluded.<\/p>\n
\"If those questions and concerns could not be addressed
\nproperly, developing members were of the opinion that
\nliberalization could not be pursued further under APEC,\" Soemadi
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Senior officials will meet again at the end of October in
\nSingapore to finalize APEC's free trade agenda, including
\nliberalization, for the Vancouver summit in November.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, CSIS executive director Mari E. Pangestu said
\nIndonesia's private sector should monitor the development of
\nliberalization and provide suggestions to the government on its
\nimplementation.<\/p>\n
She said private sectors from developed countries had been
\nbehind the ITA, adding they would still be behind developed
\ncountries to finalize liberalization on sectors they benefited
\nmost.<\/p>\n
The United States' proposal to liberalize the chemical
\nindustry, for instance, was supported by large private
\ncorporations under the APEC Coalition on Chemical Industry, Mari
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
APEC includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
\nKong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
\nGuinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
\nand the United States. The organization aims to achieve free and
\nopen trade and investment by 2010 for developed countries and by
\n2020 among all member countries. (rid)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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