Economists ask for leniency in U.S. trade policy
Economists ask for leniency in U.S. trade policy
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian economists expressed their
dissatisfaction in a World Net dialogue here yesterday over the
U.S. policy on trade with Indonesia.
Rizal Ramli, the managing director of Advisory Group in
Economic, Industry and Trade (Econit), said that the U.S. trade
policy for Indonesia is not as lenient as that for China.
The dialog, jointly organized by the Indonesia Economists
Association (ISEI) and the U.S. Information Service (USIS),
presented Nancy Adams, the assistant of the U.S. Trade
Representative for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC),
as speaker. She held her end of the discussion from Washington,
via electronic communication.
Citing an example, Ramli told Adams about the failure of last
month's bilateral textile negotiations between Indonesia and the
United States.
Ramli blamed the failure on the U.S.'s hard line in the
negotiations, saying that "Indonesia is not happy about the
deadlock."
The United States is Indonesia's single largest market,
importing about US$1 billion worth of textile and garments last
year.
Based on the old agreement, Indonesia was allowed to increase
the volume of its garments and textile exports to the American
market by six percent a year.
Other speakers in yesterday's dialog were Director General of
Tax Fuad Bawazier, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Barry,
U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Jeffrey R. Shafer,
Chairman of ISEI Marzuki Usman, Chamrul Djafri of the Indonesian
Textile Association and Rudy Lengkong of the National Agency for
Export Development.
Chamrul stressed the need for the U.S. administration to give
more room for its textile negotiators who are going to try and
resuscitate the ailing negotiations at the end of this month.
"Where's the beef in the U.S. policy?" Ramli said, quoting a
famous, American hamburger advertisement. He explained that the
Americans should not just talk but also take action.
Relocation
Marzuki also suggested that the Clinton administration support
the relocation of certain industrial activities from the United
States to Indonesia, in a bid to increase U.S. investments in
this country.
He said that it is better for American companies to relocate
their factories to Indonesia due to the high cost of labor in the
United States.
According to Marzuki, rather than selling machinery for labor
intensive industries on the Indonesian market, American business
people could use the machines in Indonesia, where labor wages are
relatively low.
Adams, whose is in charge of developing and implementing trade
and investment initiatives in Asia and the Pacific, declined to
give a direct response. He did say that Asia-Pacific countries
have to work together to increase their performance.
Ramli told Adams that Indonesia, due to its vast land area and
growing influence both in international politics and economics,
deserves a more lenient U.S. policy.
Marzuki added that the Jakarta government had also followed
the advice of the Americans to continually deregulate Indonesia's
business activities to encourage foreign investments.
Ironically, American business people are not very interested
in investing in Indonesia, he said.
Ambassador Barry said it was important for Indonesian
companies to honor labor rights and said that there is no need to
accuse so-called "third parties" in every labor dispute.
He said the American people knew that the illusion of the
communists standing behind all of Indonesia's social problems was
false. (09)