RI, Thailand postpone talks on rice swap
RI, Thailand postpone talks on rice swap
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Talks between Indonesia and Thailand over a planned US$40
million barter deal have been delayed due to disagreement over
the items to be swapped, according to the State Logistics Agency
(Bulog).
Indonesia offered aircraft, train cars and fertilizer in
exchange for Thai rice, but Bulog's chairman Widjanarko Puspoyo
said Thailand had turned down the offer.
He did not specify how long the talks would be delayed, but he
said Indonesia was ready to return to the negotiating table if
Thailand was willing to accept the items offered by Indonesia.
"We will continue the talks only if Thailand agrees to take
the aircraft, train cars and fertilizer (from us). If they don't
take them all, we will postpone the countertrade talks,"
Widjanarko was quoted by Antara as saying following a ceremony to
install several top officials in the agency.
According to Widjanarko, the decision to delay the deal had
been made by Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M. Soewandi
during a coordinating meeting of economic ministers on Wednesday.
Rini had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with her counterpart in Thailand to develop countertrade
agreements between the two countries.
Under the deal, Indonesia would import 200,000 tons of rice
from Thailand in exchange for one CN-235 aircraft, 122 train car
units, and shipments of ammonia, a chemical substance used in the
production of fertilizer.
On Tuesday, a senior official of the ministry said the first
shipment of Thai rice was expected to arrive in July, but some
analysts doubted that the deal would materialize, claiming that
Indonesia was offering unmarketable products.
A source at the ministry said Thailand was not interested in
the aircraft and train cars offered by Indonesia and would rather
receive only fertilizer in exchange for the rice.
The CN-235 aircraft would be manufactured by state-owned
aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Nusantara, which was formerly known
as PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nasional, while the train cars
would be produced by state-owned railroad engineering firm PT
INKA.
Meanwhile, Bulog's spokesman Suhardo said that should the
Thailand-Indonesia barter talks fall through, the agency might
seek out rice in other countries to meet its rice import target
of one million tons this year.
"We may explore other markets like China and Cambodia if the
countertrade talks with Thailand fall through," Suhardo told The
Jakarta Post.
Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, shipped some
500,000 tons of rice to Indonesia in 2001 through private firms.
As of this month, Bulog has bought 1.05 million tons of rice
out of the 2.2 million tons it expects to buy on the domestic
market this year. It has also imported some 300,000 million tons
of rice.
The agency earlier signed a one-year deal to import 500,000
tons of rice from the government-run Vietnam Southern Food Corp.
As of March, total imports from Vietnam amounted to 300,000
tons, while the remaining rice under the deal would be brought in
based upon domestic requirements, Suhardo said.