RI's WTO delegates gear up for Cancun
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