RI to host G-33 meeting in mid April

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The G-33 alliance of developing countries -- fighting to protect sensitive farm products from trade liberalization under the World Trade Organization -- is to hold a ministerial meeting here ahead of the next WTO conference in Hong Kong.

The ministerial meeting is expected to take place in conjunction with the Asia Africa Conference jubilee in mid April in Bandung.

"Indonesia is to host the G-33 ministerial meeting but the date still awaits the final schedule of the Asia Africa Conference," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director for Multilateral Trade and Industry Mohammad Oemar on Tuesday.

He added that the government had considered delaying the conference jubilee following the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Sumatra.

At the meeting, Oemar said, G-33 ministers were expected to come up with concrete proposals for "Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms" (SP-SSM), a concept used by developing countries to protect sensitive farm products from the excesses of trade liberalization.

The G-33, currently led by Indonesia, would use these proposals in negotiations during the sixth WTO ministerial meeting to be held in December in Hong Kong, he said.

Separately, the Ministry of Agriculture's multilateral cooperation section head Mukti Setiarto said the group would meet in Geneva next week, and each country member would propose its criterion for defining sensitive farm products.

"The definition of sensitive farm products is different from one country to another, depending on the respective country's national interests," he said.

Sensitive farm products are often staple foods that are produced by small farmers who dominate the populations of developing countries.

Aggressive trade liberalization in farm products had the potential to ruin a country's "uncompetitive" agriculture sector, threatening the livelihoods of already poor farmers and their families.

In Indonesia, certain sectional interests have suggested that the government place rice, sugar, soybean and corn onto the sensitive lists, but Mukti said the government had yet to determine this matter.

At last year's WTO general council meeting in Geneva, the G-33 succeeded in pushing the SP-SSM into the so-called "July Package" agreement framework. "July Package" turned important as it revived stalled talks on global free trade agreement since the collapse of the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.

However, details on the allowed categories and number of products would have to be negotiated at future talks, thus giving the G-33 little time before the next round of negotiations in December.

Some global experts have commended the G-33's achievement in pushing the SP-SSM concept, and have further suggested that the group should pressure industrialized nations into specifying a final date for the elimination of trade distorting export subsidies.

The G-33 now comprises 42 developing countries within the WTO, including China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.