Trade issues will move to job protection: Subroto<\/p>\n
NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Senior Indonesian economist Subroto
\npredicted yesterday that the most important trade issues between
\nnations would not be the nationality of products but rather,
\nwhere would trade generate jobs, and to whom.<\/p>\n
"The issues of job creation and job protection are sure to be
\nparamount on the agenda of political leaders throughout the
\nindustrialized world for the coming years," Subroto, former
\nsecretary-general of the Vienna-based Organization of Petroleum
\nExporting Countries, said.<\/p>\n
He told the 19th Asian Advertising Congress that the loss of
\njobs, due to increased competition between the old industrial and
\nnew industrial countries should not be taken lightly.<\/p>\n
In fact, he noted, unemployment problems have forced many
\ndeveloped countries to toughen their positions in trade issues
\nand had led to increasing tensions in multilateral and bilateral
\ntrade negotiations.<\/p>\n
Citing examples, he pointed to the tough and emotional
\nnegotiations between the United States and China and between the
\nU.S. and Japan.<\/p>\n
Subroto was the main speaker yesterday at the session on the
\ntopic of uptrends in Asia, which was chaired by Sabam Siagian,
\nformer Indonesian ambassador to Australia.<\/p>\n
He also cited the tendency among U.S. and European countries
\nto use social dumping -- linking trade issues to workers rights
\nand human rights, social conditions and environmental standards
\n-- as a new form of protection of jobs.<\/p>\n
However, he saw such a move as the manifestation of bad faith,
\na case of industrialized countries using whatever pretext to rob
\nthe developing world of its few competitive advantages.<\/p>\n
"If industrialized countries freely take advantage of their
\ntechnological lead and mastery of management, marketing and
\nfinancial techniques, on what grounds do they try to prevent new
\ncomers from taking advantage of their cheap labor and natural
\nresources?" he wondered.<\/p>\n
Suspicion<\/p>\n
He pointed to a lingering suspicion in many quarters in Asia
\nthat underneath whatever arguments both the U.S. and Europe use
\nin trade negotiations lies the unspoken reluctance to acknowledge
\nthe end of Western supremacy and to share economic power.<\/p>\n
Earlier in his presentation, Subroto, who held several
\nportfolios in Indonesian cabinets in the 1970s and 1980s,
\nobserved the emergence of a new economic powerhouse in the Asia
\nPacific region, besides the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the emergence of Asia as a new center of
\neconomic gravity, thanks to the extraordinary process of fast and
\nsteady growth in East and Southeast Asia between the 1960s and
\n1980s.<\/p>\n
"We are already, economically speaking, in a fully tripolar
\nworld with the three centers of power, Western Europe, North
\nAmerica and East\/Southeast Asia, in a position of strategic
\neconomic comparison," he said.<\/p>\n
He predicted that if Asia sustains its explosive growth for
\nanother generation, its output will almost certainly overtake
\nNorth America and Europe.<\/p>\n
"Nonetheless, it does not mean that Asia will dominate them,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Subroto, therefore, considers it a mistaken belief for
\nindustrialized countries to fear that Asia is stealing jobs and
\noutput from them.<\/p>\n
"That need not to be the case, since trade is never a zero-sum
\ngame," Subroto argued.<\/p>\n
He said there is no reason for Western countries to take a
\nconfrontational attitude towards the emerging countries in Asia
\nbecause they can get a fair share of these markets if they adjust
\ntheir strategies to the new realities of the tripolar world
\norder.<\/p>\n
Subroto called on the East and West to meet in an interactive
\nprocess of rational discourse and human compassion and in
\npeaceful competition and enlightenment in mind and heart, as well
\nas in markets and economies. (vin)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/trade-issues-will-move-to-job-protection-subroto-1447893297",
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