RI denounces rich countries' unilateral actions

RI denounces rich countries' unilateral actions

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): Indonesia on Monday denounced
"unilateral and arbitrary" actions by industrialized countries
which could undermine multilateral bodies such as the World Trade
Organization (WTO).

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Indonesian
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas also indirectly criticized the United
States for controversial legislation punishing states for trading
with Cuba, Iran and Libya.

He argued for a strengthening of the United Nations, saying
that "constructive initiatives are needed, and multilateralism
has to be reasserted and strengthened."

Concerning the WTO, which is due to meet in Singapore in
December, Alatas expressed alarm "at the tendency of some
developed countries to resort to a new form of protectionism in
the guise of linking labor standards and other social and
environmental concerns to trade."

"Such efforts will not only denigrate the developing
countries, it will also ultimately debilitate the WTO itself."

He called on all trading partners to refrain from overloading
the Singapore meeting with "issues extraneous to trade."

"Let us together nurture the WTO as the guardian of a
predictable, non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and
the guarantor of the rights of the weaker trading partner against
unilateral and arbitrary actions by the strong."

Some countries are pressing for the WTO's Dec. 9 to
Dec.13 meeting to take up investment rules, labor and
environmental standards, government procurements and corruption
as issues which affect trade.

But Asian and other developing countries fear that bringing in
such issues could result in new forms of protectionism, such as
demands for them to raise workers' wages or comply with tough
environmental standards for their exports.

Alatas added that his country shared concern "at the practice
of some countries of promulgating national laws with extra-
territorial application that adversely have impacts on the
legitimate interests of other countries."

"We cannot accept the imposition of the law of the strong in
place of dialog and negotiation," he said.

Without referring directly to Washington, Alatas said that "no
one country, no matter how powerful, should be allowed to
unilaterally regulate the lives of other sovereign countries."

Council

In another part of his speech Alatas said that there are too
many European countries on the United Nations Security Council
and called for redefining criteria to choose permanent members in
the body.

Alatas said the track records of candidates for permanent
membership should cover both regional and global achievements.

"It is an anachronism and a gross anomaly that Europe is over-
represented, Asia underrepresented and Africa and Latin America
not represented at all in the roster of the council's permanent
members," he noted.

Alatas called for setting up criteria for the selection of new
permanent members, including their economic, political and
demographic importance, and their commitment to responsibilities
inherent to a permanent member.

The Indonesian foreign minister focused his address on reform
of the world organization and decried the body's chronic
financial crisis. He said there was a "real danger" that UN
peacekeeping operations might collapse because of the cash
shortage.

"No organization can function through starvation," Alatas
said.

Turning to nuclear disarmament, Alatas called for creating a
special committee in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva to
begin negotiation on the elimination of nuclear weapons now that
the world has a nuclear test ban treaty.

He added that Indonesia is in the last stage of ratifying the
UN convention on chemical weapons.