Deregulation package to be issued
Deregulation package to be issued
JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon issue a new package of
deregulation to further sharpen its competitive edge in
anticipation of trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region,
Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto said.
After meeting with President Soeharto at the Merdeka Palace
here yesterday, Hartarto said that the new deregulatory package
represents a down-payment to show its commitment to the action
plan declared by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders
in their third summit meeting in Osaka, Japan, earlier this
month.
The minister said the deregulation is also aimed to meet the
requirements of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement, which
will be implemented by 2003.
APEC's 18 members also agreed to liberalize trade and
investment by 2010 for developed member economies and by 2020 for
developing members.
"We're working on it now. Hopefully, we can publish it later
this year," he said, adding that the deregulation package
involves Coordinating Minister for Economy and Finance Saleh
Afiff, Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo, Minister of Trade
Satrio B. Joedono, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad and
himself.
Asked about what sectors to be deregulated, Hartarto said that
they will be announced soon. "It won't be appropriate if I tell
you in parts. Just wait. The deregulation team is currently hard
at work," he noted.
Suggesting that the deregulatory package will be a broad-based
one, he said it will include the reduction of tariff and non-
tariff barriers and measures to improve the efficiency of local
distribution of goods.
"We stated in Osaka that we were already committed to cutting
tariffs and eliminating non-tariff barriers," he said.
He expressed the hope that by the year 2003, the tariff
reductions will cover all posts agreed before by Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Initial actions
In their third summit meeting in Osaka, APEC leaders presented
their respective "initial actions".
The most striking ones of the initial actions were made by
Indonesia, China and Japan.
China, promising a dramatic opening of its markets, planned to
cut tariffs on imports by 30 percent from next year.
Japan said that it will bring forward planned tariff cuts on
697 industrial and mining products within two years, covering
US$10 billion worth of imports a year. The country also promised
50 new deregulatory measures to improve foreign access to its
market.
"Tariff cuts originally scheduled to take effect in January
1998 will be applied in April next year to such items as
textiles, chemicals, steel and non-ferrous metals," it said.
The Indonesian government presented a deregulatory package on
May 23, which promised hefty tariff reductions across the board
between now and 2003, setting maximum rates on most goods at
between five and ten percent down from the current 40 percent.
The package also accelerated plans to eliminate tariff
surcharges in 153 categories.
Indonesia has also eliminated 61 of the 98 non-tariff barriers
which it is required to remove under the Uruguay Round. On both
tariff surcharges and non-tariff barriers, the Uruguay Round sets
a 10-year deadline. Indonesia already removed many last May.(13)