RI accuses neighbors of unfair trading

RI accuses neighbors of unfair trading

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

On Friday, a mere four days after the implementation of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area,
popularly known as AFTA, the Indonesian government accused three
of its member nations of unfairly blocking the import of a number
of Indonesian products.

Budi Darmadi, director of regional cooperation, said that the
ASEAN countries - Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines - had
actively imposed various non-tariff barriers to keep some
Indonesian products outside their domestic markets.

The three are among the six ASEAN member nations which
implemented the AFTA on Jan. 1.

The three other countries are Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei
Darussalam.

Budi said the non-tariff barriers, in raising the prices of
their products, had effectively forced Indonesian business
players to pay extra money to sell their products in the
countries' markets.

The Indonesian government has "filed complaints with the
respective governments and asked them to revoke these non-tariff
barriers," he told The Jakarta Post.

According to Budi, Thailand has imposed dumping duties on
Indonesia-made float glass products; the Philippine government,
meantime, has levied so-called "safeguard" costs on Indonesian
cement products while Malaysia has created complex administrative
regulations for Indonesian steel pipe products.

The governments of the three countries have argued that such
non-tariff barriers were necessary to keep their local
businessmen from bankruptcy, Budi said.

"I think these practices are in conflict with AFTA," he said.

Among the agreements in the economic zone are requirements to
lower import tariffs to between zero and five percent.

The four other ASEAN members -- Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and
Vietnam -- are allowed to delay opening up their markets until
between the years 2006 and 2010.

Indonesia has managed to reduce 99.08 percent of the 7,192
items with the import tariffs of between 0 percent to 5 percent,
as required under AFTA.

The six countries are allowed to delay implementing tariff
reduction for some certain products until 2003 under a so-called
"flexibility measure."

Indonesia has delayed cutting import tariffs on 66 products,
mostly plastic and chemical products, to protect the local
plastic and chemical industry. Import tariffs on such products
now hover about 10 percent.

Budi said ASEAN has established the so-called Coordinating
Committee for CEPT AFTA (CCCA) which is assigned to settle
disputes among ASEAN members over the implementation of the AFTA.

"We will not hesitate to bring this problem to the CCCA
meeting," Budi said.

The CCCA, which meets at least three times a year, will
discuss disputes and find out solutions.

If they fail to solve the problem, the dispute will be brought
to a higher settlement agency called the Senior Economic Official
Meeting (SEOM).

All the decisions should be approved by the so-called AFTA
Council, which comprise ministers in charge of trade affairs in
each ASEAN countries. The AFTA Council meets once a year.