RI pins hopes on APEC to create fair trade

RI pins hopes on APEC to create fair trade

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government expects prominent world leaders to come up with a
strong commitment to helping create a fair trading environment
for developing countries at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

A fair trading condition is needed, partly to eliminate or
reduce costs of doing business in the global arena, while helping
poor and developing nations to improve economically, Minister of
Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said on Friday.

"During the upcoming APEC meeting, Indonesia wants to
emphasize the importance of the Pacific Rim leaders to create a
fair trading environment, especially for developing nations,"
reiterated Mari after a ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

She added that Indonesia would also use the meeting to appeal
to the leaders to give a much-needed jolt in pushing the upcoming
round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
December in Hong Kong.

Next week in Busan, South Korea, Asia-Pacific economic leaders
are scheduled to participate in the APEC forum -- an economic
forum, started in 1989, to help boost trade among Pacific Rim
nations.

APEC groups together 21 economies from the Pacific Rim,
covering 2.6 billion people on four continents. It accounts for
about 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) of
more than US$20 billion and 41 percent of the world's total
trade.

Observers see the forum as an alternative path to developing
the world's economy, apart from the more formal channels in the
WTO. It has been noted that trade and investment barriers across
the APEC region had fallen from 16.6 percent in 1988 to 6.4
percent in 2004.

Mari said Indonesia would also propose specific issues during
the forum, including problems in determining special products and
safeguard mechanisms for agriculture under the WTO framework.

She explained that the upcoming APEC meeting would basically
focus on three issues; the forum's role to support the upcoming
WTO talks, the implementation of the Bogor goals and the
discussion over bilateral and regional economic problems.

The Bogor goals are a series of targets drafted during an APEC
meeting in Bogor, West Java, in 1994. The goals were made to
achieve free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific
region: 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing
economies.

"APEC stands on the three legs of economic issues, the first
is on liberalization, the second is on facilitation and the third
is on economic and technical cooperation. For developing nations,
liberalization should be supported by economic cooperation," said
Mari.

Meanwhile, business leaders included in the APEC Business
Advisory Council, a unit of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce
(KADIN) met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to advise the
government on the APEC meeting.

Chairman of the council, John A. Prasetio, said the president
would make a presentation on labor, tax, infrastructure and
investment affairs before the APEC leaders.

"Aside from making the presentation, the President will also
meet several world business leaders during his three-day visit in
Busan," said John.