Thai, RP to ease limits on Indonesian imports

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government said on Monday that both Thailand and the Philippines had promised to ease restrictions on several Indonesian products entering their home markets.

Budi Dharmadi, director of regional cooperation at the ministry of trade and industry told The Jakarta Post that the promise was made after Indonesia filed complaints with the respective governments during a meeting of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in Bangkok last week.

"We asked them to review the non tariff policy because it is in conflict with the implementation of the ASEAN free trade scheme," Budi said.

The government earlier alleged that three of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries - Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines - had been unfairly blocking the export of a number of Indonesian products.

Thailand imposed dumping duties on Indonesia-made float glass products while the Philippine government implemented safeguard measures to protect their own products against competition with Indonesian products.

Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are among the six original members of the 10-nation ASEAN grouping that have agreed to implement AFTA.

The four newer ASEAN members, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, meanwhile, are allowed to delay opening up their markets until between the years 2006 and 2010.

Under AFTA, which came into effect on Jan.1, 2002, the import tariffs on almost all goods traded among the six founding members including cement and float glass products have been cut to between zero and five percent.

Budi said that these issues would be further discussed at the upcoming ASEAN Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) in Yogyakarta next month.