Summit indicates no plan to move toward FTA

Summit indicates no plan to move toward FTA

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The upcoming Asian-African Summit will first focus on
establishing a new strategic partnership, and would not as yet
moving toward ideas of linking the two continents via a free
trade agreement, senior officials said.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary-general Sudjadnan
Parnohadiningrat said that there were no indications so far the
summit would move towards the establishment of an Asia-Africa
Free Trade Area.

"However, we have identified that (a FTA) is one form of
cooperation that we can pursue in the long term. But maybe not in
the foreseeable future," Sudjadnan told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the summit will be a great opportunity for
nations in the two regions to boost bilateral trade, he said.

"We must not lose our traditional markets like the U.S., Japan
and the EU, but we must also build access to new alternative
markets such as Africa and other Asian countries," he said.

Separately, Ministry of Trade director of bilateral
cooperation Deddy Saleh said that for the time being establishing
a FTA would be very unlikely, as the two continents had very
different characteristics.

"Regionalism (in trade) is not practical," he said recently.

Deddy said that African countries had their own preferential
trade areas, as well as some economic cooperation agreements with
developed nations.

Similarly, Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) would prefer to concentrate on the ASEAN Free
Trade Area (AFTA) first and in the grouping's partnership with
Japan, China and India, he said.

Therefore, it would be more efficient for Asian countries to
establish a FTA with existing African pacts.

"For example, Indonesia can cooperate with the South African
Custom Union (SACO), from which the country could penetrate the
South African regional market," he said and added that there were
22 nations in the South African region.

He said that a similar move could be applied in the Northern
African region, home to 26 countries, including Egypt, Libya and
Morocco.

Indonesia will host a major summit of Asian and African
nations in late April in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of
the historic Asia-Africa Conference.

The main aim of the summit is to revive the Bandung Spirit and
establish a New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP).

Sudjadnan said that on the sidelines of the summit, which will
be held in the Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan, that Indonesia
would also host the Asia-Africa Business Summit in Mulia Hotel,
Jakarta.

He said that the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Kadin) would be the host of the business summit, in which CEOs
and business leaders from the two continents would meet and open
up business opportunities.

Among the key speakers in the business summit are President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, South Africa President Thabo M. Mbeki,
President of China Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong and Japan's PM Junichiro
Koizumi.

"They will mainly talk on doing business with the Japanese or
the Chinese -- what the Japanese want,"