Govt urges businesses to study WTO's July Package

Govt urges businesses to study WTO's July Package

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government urged business people here to study the impact of
the World Trade Organization's (WTO) July Package in their future
operations, particularly with the eventual tariff liberalization
and protection of sensitive products.

Indonesian Ambassador to the WTO Gusmardi Bustami said in a
discussion on Tuesday with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (Kadin), that the government was looking forward to
getting input from business people that could be used in upcoming
WTO negotiations.

"The government needs to hear from the industries," Gusmardi
said.

He asked businessmen to immediately identify the goods and
services that needed to be protected, including those from
agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

Industries are also urged to work closely with the government
to identify key export destinations and challenges faced in those
markets, he said.

"In the past years, the government might have been acting as a
know-it-all, but now as the world changes rapidly, the government
has to work along with business people," he said.

Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, who heads Kadin's special committee
for international trade, said that the chamber would provide the
government with a road map on industry and trade, which could
serve as a guidance for the country's negotiators in future WTO
talks.

"We have now concrete recommendations in the road map, which
should be useful for the government," Shinta said.

The road map, however, would be handed to the new government
in mid October. She said that the road map would provide an
overview of the difficulties and opportunities faced by all
domestic sectors.

The government has often been criticized for lacking clear-cut
strategy in WTO talks.

Business people had been generally confused as to how rapid
liberalization could be beneficial for domestic industries,
whereas it actually posed a real threat to ailing industries.

Chairman of Kadin's committee on product development and
marketing Thomas Dharmawan, said recently that early signs of
"deindustrialization" had emerged as cheap imports started to
overwhelm local products, forcing some companies to go out of
business.

"Instead of having a structural transformation from
agricultural to industrial sector, we are moving backwards. The
worse part is most business people are not aware of the trend and
the fact that their fate is determined by someone abroad in a WTO
negotiation," he said.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) general council meeting
agreed on the "July Package" in Geneva on July 31, adopting
framework on how to move ahead on trade in agriculture and
industrial goods market access (NAMA).

However, despite the few significant gains for developing
countries, the agreement has left a number of homework needed to
be done instantly, otherwise industrialized nations would take
the full benefit of the multilateral trading system.