RI to uses bilateral approach to settle trade disputes

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will take a bilateral approach in dealing with non-tariff barriers imposed by other countries against Indonesian exports, State Minister of Food Affairs Ibrahim Hasan said yesterday.

Ibrahim said a bilateral approach based on a mutual recognition agreement -- under which countries involved in bilateral trade can exchange information about their import- export regulations -- would be more effective than other approaches.

"We have used mutual recognition agreements in dealing with Australia and the United States," he said at a hearing of House Commission III for agriculture, forestry, transmigration and food affairs.

"Our developed partners will provide technical aid to help Indonesian exporters without charging for it because it is a government to government cooperation," he said.

He said Indonesia's food and live animal exports were increasing.

Exports were US$3.77 billion last year, up from $3.58 billion in 1995.

But he said the exporting business was still hampered by non- tariff barriers such as the automatic quarantining of goods imposed by several countries, including Australia.

He said Australia rejected 0.85 percent of Indonesia's exports of processed and unprocessed food last year.

Of the 0.85 percent, he said, "at least 66 percent of our food exports have been rejected by Australia due to its health requirements. Sixteen percent was rejected due to high pesticide content, 12 percent due to preservative content and 6 percent because it exceeded the allowed microbiological levels".

He said the fact that goods were rejected showed that Indonesian exporters did not understand the export regulations in destination countries.

He added that although international standard regulations on food processing have been set and approved by importer countries, some countries have added special regulations.

"Our food exporters have to understand both the international standards and special regulations imposed by destination countries," he said. (gis)