RI's WTO team asked to fight for greater market access<\/p>\n
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia's business community is asking the government
\ndelegates to fight for greater market access for Indonesian
\nproducts in negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
\nCancun, this week.<\/p>\n
Currently, they said, some Indonesian products still faced
\nboth tariff and non-tariff barriers in some export markets.<\/p>\n
\"For example, if we (Indonesian companies) export three-in-one
\ncoffee products (consisting of coffee, sugar and creamer), the
\nUnited States will impose a quota on the products because it
\nprotects its sugar,\" Thomas Darmawan, the executive director for
\nthe Indonesian Food and Beverages Association (Gapmmi) told The
\nJakarta Post on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Thomas recalled that the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
\nIndustry (Kadin), in its meetings with the government to prepare
\nIndonesia's agenda for the Cancun summit, had also suggested that
\nthe Indonesian delegation resist efforts to review the \"exclusion
\nlist\" that may hurt local companies. The exclusion list contain
\nproducts which are exempted from liberalization.<\/p>\n
According to Kadin, the products that Indonesia should fight
\nto keep on the exclusion list include automobile parts.<\/p>\n
Kadin also asked the government to encourage countries that
\nstill impose high import tariffs to reduce them according to the
\nrates agreed upon in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
\n(GATT).<\/p>\n
\"Today, countries like the U.S. still protect certain products
\nwith an import tariff as high as 200 percent,\" Thomas added.<\/p>\n
Kadin also asked the government to refuse any talks regarding
\n\"new issues\". New issues, also known as the \"Singapore issues\",
\nwhich consist of competition policies, trade facilitation,
\ngovernment procurement and investment, initially emerged at the
\nfirst WTO summit in Singapore 1996.<\/p>\n
Developed countries have persuaded developing countries to
\nliberalize those four issues. But so far, developing countries
\nhave resisted any efforts to put those issues on negotiation
\ntables in WTO summits, arguing that they were not prepared to
\nliberalize those four sectors.<\/p>\n
Kadin, however, regretted that the government had moved too
\nfaster in liberalizing several sectors, such that some
\ncommodities in the country now had import tariffs lower than the
\nminimum rate stipulated by the WTO.<\/p>\n
\"Currently our import tariff for food products, except for
\nrice and sugar, are already below the rate agreed in the WTO
\ntalks,\" said Thomas.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is sending about 40 delegates presided by the
\nMinister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi to the Cancun
\nsummit.<\/p>\n
Indonesian delegates have reportedly promised to fight for
\ngreater market access and to keep protecting the country's
\nstrategic products such as corn, rice, soya beans, and sugar.<\/p>\n
According to Thomas, Kadin is to send several members, led by
\nSoy Pardede, to Cancun to observe the summit and accompany the
\ngovernment delegates during the summit.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ris-wto-team-asked-to-fight-for-greater-market-access-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}