RI's WTO delegates gear up for Cancun
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
About 40 Indonesian delegates, headed by the Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi, are preparing to win tough negotiations with 145 other countries in the fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial summit in Cancun, Mexico, next week.
Pos M. Hutabarat, the director general for international cooperation for industry and trade at the ministry told reporters on Friday that the delegation were well-prepared for the summit and had identified key issues affecting national interests.
"In the agricultural sector, Indonesia will continue to push for the exclusion of 'strategic products' from trade liberalization," he said.
Earlier, several government officials had said Indonesia would propose rice, corn, soybean and sugar as strategic products, so import duties on the commodities would not be reduced.
Hutabarat said Indonesia might propose more strategic products than planned during the WTO summit.
On liberalization in the service sector, he said that Indonesia would inevitably have to play by the rules agreed at the WTO summit in Qatar two years ago -- that the country would open its service industry by 2005.
"However, we will fight for the establishment of emergency measures before we start the 'offer and request' session regarding services," he said.
Emergency measures are tools for WTO member countries to abrogate any agreements in the case that the liberalization process goes to such an extent that it threatens the welfare of the people.
As for the so-called "Singapore issues", Indonesia will resist efforts to bring the issues onto negotiating table, as disagreements still exist between developed and developing countries over them.
"Indonesia will insist that (the issues) should first undergo a clarification process before negotiations," Hutabarat said.
The Singapore issues include trade facilitation, investment, government procurement and competition policies, which emerged during the first WTO ministerial summit in Singapore in 1996.
At the third summit in Seattle in 1999, several developed countries brought up the issues again and called for negotiations over the matter. However, developing countries said they were not ready to liberalize the four areas.
Hutabarat said that compared to its delegations at the previous summits, Indonesia's Cancun team was better prepared to fight for the nation's interests, as the team consisted of brilliant negotiators.
Unlike the United States, which reportedly always brings dozens of professional lawyers to the summit, the Indonesian team consists of government officials from relevant ministries: the trade, foreign, agriculture, finance, fisheries and maritime affairs ministries.
The delegation from Jakarta will be supported by Indonesian delegates from Geneva, including its WTO ambassador Gusmardi Bustami and diplomatic officials Ganef Judawati, Asianto Sinambela and Arrmanatha C. Nasir.
"We might not bring expensive lawyers to the summit, but we have several delegates who are legal experts," said Hutabarat.
RI's key negotiators for Cancun summit
Rini M.S. Soewandi Ministry of Industry and Trade Head of national WTO team
Pos M. Hutabarat Ministry of Industry and Trade First Deputy of national WTO team
Gusmardi Bustami Indonesian WTO Ambassador in Geneva Second Deputy of national WTO team
Susanto Sutoyo Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Adolf Warouw Ministry of Finance
Delima H. Azahari Ministry of Agriculture
Hasan Kartadjoemena Advisor of national WTO team