Antiterrorism body expected to protect exports

Tony Hotland, Jakarta

The government will set up a national anti-bioterrorism committee in a bid to protect the country's export commodities on the international market, especially in response to the United States' newly endorsed Bioterrorism Act.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro- Jakti said on Wednesday that bioterrorism issues had a close relationship to economic matters.

"Bioterrorism is mainly facilitated through chemical and biological substances that are mostly used in sectors like agriculture, plantations, animal husbandry and fisheries. We must protect these sectors," he said after opening a seminar on the issue.

The committee will act as the focal point to respond to inquiries from foreign countries regarding the level of chemical and biological substances in exported products, as well as to monitor and trace the use of such substances in the country to prevent the development of chemical weapons.

State Minister of Research and Technology M. Hatta Radjasa said that such substances, largely used in various manufacturing companies in Indonesia, had the potential to be misused.

"For example, the substances used to produce paint can actually be used to make explosives. That's why we need to be able to trace them, keeping in mind that up to now there's been no body responsible for these tasks," he said.

The establishment of the committee is also in response to U.S. regulations issued late last year that require facilities and individuals that use, store or transport chemical and biological substances to adhere to specific biosecurity procedures designed to maintain oversight and control over those materials.

Realizing that such substances can also be acquired from overseas, the U.S. government decided to impose the regulations on products coming from abroad.

The U.S. is one of Indonesia's main export markets. Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports in the first quarter of the year reached US$11.47 billion, with some $1.75 billion worth of goods sold to the U.S. market.

Dorodjatun acknowledged that domestic exporters would be burdened with extra expenses, but assured that this was the best preventive method and was necessary.

Extra expenses will likely be incurred in the form of fees for scientific analysis of the exported products by an internationally accredited laboratory.

"Just compare the benefit of spending money on the analysis to the loss incurred if the products are exported without analysis and the products are returned," Dorodjatun said.

Dorodjatun expects the committee, which will be chaired by the research and technology minister, to start operation before the year-end as the draft on the committee is being finalized.

The committee is also a consequence of the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. The convention requires all signatory countries to establish a national committee that answers to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.