RI vows to protect agro-products<\/p>\n
Evi Mariani and Johannes Simbolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government has vowed to continue protecting certain
\nagricultural commodities against liberalization and will align
\nwith tens of other poor countries to block any efforts at the
\nWorld Trade Organization (WTO) talks to liberalize trade on the
\ncommodities.<\/p>\n
Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih told the European
\nUnion's Ministers of Agriculture on Monday that basic food
\ncommodities should be exempted from liberalization because they
\nplay a crucial role in alleviating poverty and economic
\ndevelopment in many developing countries.<\/p>\n
\"Then it should be agreeable that some limited number of
\nstrategic food staples be totally exempt from further tariff
\nreduction and expansion of tariff quota as well as automatic
\naccess to special guard mechanisms,\" Bungaran said in Taormina,
\nItaly.<\/p>\n
Bungaran was invited to the EU's Agricultural Minister's
\ninformal meeting to present the perspective of \"South Hemisphere\"
\non the liberalization of agricultural commodities.<\/p>\n
The EU's ministers held the meeting to review the results of
\nthe recent WTO ministerial talks in Cancun, Mexico, according to
\ndocuments made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Pos M. Hutabarat, director general for industrial
\ncooperation and international trade, said the government would
\ncontinue to block any efforts to liberalize trade on strategic
\nfarm products at WTO talks together with the countries grouped in
\nthe so-called Group 33.<\/p>\n
Each member of the group has their own strategic products, but
\nIndonesia has named rice, corn, soybean and sugar as strategic
\nproducts. The group wants that each country is allowed to set
\ntheir own import duties on the commodities.<\/p>\n
Group 33, which was launched during the Cancun summit and was
\nco-founded by Indonesia, comprises 33 countries, including the
\nPhilippines, Pakistan and a number of African and South American
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
He said that Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi
\nwould try to take spare time to visit Honduras -- a member of
\nGroup 33 -- during her official visit to Brazil next month.<\/p>\n
\"We will fight for special products again in the senior
\nofficial meeting on Dec. 15 and the sixth WTO summit in 2004,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The fifth WTO ministerial summit earlier this month decided to
\narrange a senior official meeting to resume talks on Dec. 15 in
\nWTO headquarters in Geneva.<\/p>\n
It also decided to have the sixth WTO ministerial meeting in
\nAugust next year in Hong Kong, in a bid to meet the deadline of
\nthe completion of the Doha Rounds talks on Jan. 1, 2005.<\/p>\n
Pos said during the Cancun meeting, Indonesia had gained some
\nprominence thanks to its role in co-establishing Group 33.<\/p>\n
Indonesia was invited to meet with developed countries.<\/p>\n
\"We (Indonesia) have never been invited to the 'Green Room'
\nbefore because they (developed countries) thought we would
\npeacefully comply with any decisions made in the meetings,\" Pos
\nrecalled.<\/p>\n
The \"Green Room\" is a term referring to the exclusive meeting
\nof developed, influential countries in the WTO. The forum has
\noften been blasted, especially by developing countries, as not
\ntransparent.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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