Indonesia hails new WTO trade round talks

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government was satisfied with the outcome of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha, a minister said on Thursday, citing that some of Indonesia's demands had been accepted at the meeting.

"It's generally good. Some of our demands were met at the meeting," Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi said on the sidelines of a trade discussion.

For instance, Rini said, Indonesia along with other farm- product exporting countries grouped in the Australia-led Cairns Group had succeeded in getting the "phasing out" of farm export subsidies included in the agenda of the new round of free trade talks launched at the Doha meeting.

Farm subsidies were one of the main sticking points during the Doha meeting which pitted the European Union (EU) against the Cairns Group and the United States.

The Cairns Group and the U.S. first insisted that the elimination of agricultural export subsidies should be one of the agendas of the new round of trade talks, but the EU firmly rejected this proposal.

The Doha meeting finally agreed on the phrase "phasing out without prejudging the outcome" rather than "elimination".

Ministers at the Doha meeting agreed on Wednesday to launch a new round of trade talks, called the Doha round, after days of tough negotiations.

Rini said the Doha agreement would enable agricultural products from developing countries to compete with those from developed countries.

Rini did not provide further details of the Doha agreements in so far as they addressed Indonesia's concerns.