S'pore in trade dispute over RI export figures

S'pore in trade dispute over RI export figures

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore and neighboring Indonesia are in dispute over
discrepancies in their bilateral trade figures, it emerged
Sunday.

The two have clashed over an apparent 2.49 billion US dollar
gap in the figures compiled by Indonesia and Singapore for
Indonesian exports to the city-state.

The spat emerged in a letter dated July 4 to Indonesian trade
minister Rini MS Soewandi in which Singapore Trade and Industry
Minister George Yeo refuted allegations that the city-state has
not been transparent about its trade figures with Indonesia.

Discrepancies in trade data statistics between two countries
are due to the different systems used to gather the figures and
should not "surprise statisticians", Yeo said in the letter, made
available to media over the weekend.

"As I explained to you in Khon Kaen (Thailand), discrepancies
in the trade statistics of two countries should not surprise
statisticians," Yeo said.

The two ministers had met in Thailand on the sidelines of an
APEC meeting last month.

"It depends on the basis of compilation and other factors.
Even when countries collect trade statistics on the same basis,
time lags in capturing of data and valuation differences will
lead to discrepancies," he said in response to a June 16 letter
from his Indonesian counterpart.

Yeo said the city-state also has significant trade
discrepancies with other countries including Malaysia, China and
the United States.

According to Yeo, Singapore includes certain breakdown of
trade statistics such as data on re-exports and bunker exports
which Indonesia does not.

"Therefore, Singapore's export figures will not be equal to
Indonesia's import figures, and vice versa," he said in the
letter.

Singapore does not publish trade data on Indonesia based on a
mutual agreement by leaders of the two countries in 1974 but the
city-state has handed annual data to Jakarta over the past 29
years, Yeo said.

"However, we have always informed Indonesia that we would have
no problems should Indonesia choose to publish the data," Yeo
said.

"Up to last year, Indonesia had chosen not to do so."