Businesspeople unfazed by threat of boycott

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian businessmen played down on Thursday Australia's threat to impose trade sanctions against the country.

Chairman of the Indonesian Exporters Association Amirudin Saud said on Thursday that Indonesia's foreign trade would not be overly affected if Indonesia-Australia trade relations were to be suspended.

He said he did not foresee any problems if Australia boycotted Indonesia's export products.

"There are always other countries that can take our exports if Australia rejects them. And anything that we import from Australia, we could get from other countries," he said.

Relations between the two countries have been under strain following the Australian government's outspoken criticism of Jakarta's handling of the East Timor issue.

In Jakarta, anti-Australia sentiment is growing following the burning of the Indonesian flag and the boycott launched by the neighboring country's labor unions against the unloading of goods shipped from Indonesia.

Indonesian students also burned an Australian flag on Wednesday. Protests continued on Thursday in Jakarta's main streets.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday that Australia had no plans to impose economic or trade sanctions on Indonesia in order to pressure the country to control the ongoing violence in East Timor.

But Howard told a media briefing in Sydney that the Australian government had not ruled out imposing sanctions at a later date.

"Although the government isn't considering imposing sanctions currently, the issue is very much on the table," he was quoted by Dowjones Newswires as saying.

Earlier in the week the Indonesian Importers Association (GINSI), supported by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, also threatened a boycott of imports from Australia if the country intervened in Indonesia's internal affairs over the East Timor issue.

Disadvantage

Secretary-General of the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association Kahar Haryopuspito shared Amirudin's view, but he observed that any trade conflict between the two countries would cause disadvantages all round.

He was said he was concerned with GINSI's earlier statement of a threatened trade boycott against Australia.

"We in the business side of the relationship should not start the conflict. What GINSI did by threatening Australia was not wise," he said.

He said the Indonesian business community should apply the boycott against Australia only if both governments were engaged in political conflict.

With the exception of last year, bilateral trade has been in favor of Australia, which exports textile fibers, dairy products and mining equipment to Indonesia.

Indonesia made a profit of A$1.41 billion (about US$950 million) in bilateral trade with Australia in 1998, partly due to a decline in imports from the neighboring country.

According to data released by the Australian Embassy, Indonesia's exports surged 57.2 percent to A$3.56 billion last year, while imports dropped by 37 percent to $2.15 billion.

Indonesia's main exports to the country are paper, furniture and non-metal mineral products.

Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iman Taufik said in Bali on Thursday that if both countries terminated their economic relationship, Australia would suffer a greater loss than Indonesia. He said the former had always enjoyed a surplus in its bilateral trading with Indonesia.

"Just forget Australia. Our trading with the country is small," Iman said on the sidelines of an oil conference.

He expressed concern over what he called the "deplorable conduct" of Australians in handling the East Timor issue.

"Australia is now talking too much about East Timor. In fact, they paid no contribution in the development of East Timor over the past 23 years, during which Indonesia heavily invested in the area," he said.

Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976 after the Portuguese colonial ruler abruptly pulled out of the area, leaving a civil war behind.

Iman said East Timor had received a total foreign investment of US$40 million over the past 23 years, all from Asian investors.

Former Australian Federal Minister of Environment Ros Kelly told reporters during the conference that she believed the current tension between Australia and Indonesia would not lead to a termination of the relationship.

"It would be an enormous tragedy if there was any lessening of Australia's relationship with Indonesia ... I do not believe that anyone in our country wants the disruption in the relationship. There's so much goodwill that that can not happen," said Kelly, who made a presentation on the environment at the conference.

Kelly said Australia and Indonesia had worked hard to build a good relationship over the past 13 years and that the current tension between both countries was not expected to ruin the good ties.

She compared the relationship with a marriage, describing the current tension as only a "hiccup".

"Sometimes with your partner, you just get very angry ... But in the end you know you have to stick it out with the other.

"And the reality of all this, (is that) we are neighbors. We have got to be friends. We live next door to each other," she said. (udi/jsk)