Australian Embassy clarifies

Australian Embassy clarifies

I am writing in response to an article which appeared in The
Jakarta Post on Sept. 13, entitled Indonesia told to quit Cairns
Group.

The reported call from the representative of a local non-
government organization, Institute for Global Justice, for
Indonesia to withdraw from the Cairns Group is based on
misconceived notions of what the Group is about and how it works.

The Cairns Group is not a lobby group for agricultural
exporters, but rather a group of countries with a shared interest
in lobbying for fair trade in agriculture. This is an issue of
great concern to Indonesia and other developing countries which
cannot hope to compete with the huge subsidies employed by rich
OECD countries and face real problems with high tariffs which
limit export opportunities for developing countries.

It is true that the Cairns Group is calling for tariffs to be
cut to a maximum of only 25 percent, but this would only apply to
developed countries. Recognizing the special challenges that
developing countries face, the Cairns Group proposal would not
cut the effective protection for most developing countries to
actually increase their subsidies, especially for low income
farmers.

The claim that Australia "pressures" Indonesia in the Cairns
Group is simply not correct. Indeed, the Institute for Global
Justice should have more confidence in Indonesia's very capable
negotiators. For example, earlier this month Indonesia chose not
sign onto the Cairns Group proposal on market access. Far from
pressuring Indonesia, Australia, as Chair of the Group, expressed
its understanding of Indonesia's position.

The truth is of course that Indonesia makes its own decisions
about agriculture policy and that Australia respects these
decisions.

As for the Cairns Group, it is undeniable that its fourteen
developing country members give it a very strong voice on
developing country issues. As just one example, following the
release of the Group's market access proposal on Sept. 6, the
President of the U.S. Farm Bureau, Bob Stallman, was reported in
the U.S. journal Inside Trade as saying that the U.S. would have
to modify its own proposal in the direction of the Cairns Group's
proposal to focus more on the developing country concerned.

The value of the Cairns Group is that by working together the
small and medium sized countries it embraces can make a
difference. It would be much harder, working alone, to make our
voices heard in shaping the global agenda.

R.C. SMITH

Ambassador

Australian Embassy

Jakarta