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