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)