U.S. to help RI in protecting trade against terrorism

U.S. to help RI in protecting trade against terrorism

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States will send three security experts to Indonesia
this month to assist in upgrading security at seaports and
airports to protect the trade of goods against terrorism, a
senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

Rifana Erni, the director general of domestic trade at the
ministry, said the three experts, who arrive on March. 17, would
oversee the implementation of security measures at a number of
seaports and airports.

"This is part of our commitment in implementing the STAR
initiative," Erni told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

She is referring to the Secure Trade in the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Region (STAR) policy, initiated by
the U.S. government last year.

"We really support the STAR initiative but we don't have the
money to upgrade or buy the new technology for the security
measures. That's why we have asked the U.S government to help
Indonesia," Erni said.

The U.S. is Indonesia's biggest export market, accounting for
16 percent of total export sales.

Indonesia's main exports to the U.S. include garments,
textiles, footwear and shellfish. Imports from the U.S. consist
mainly of agricultural products, such as cotton, wheat and corn.

Indonesia has about 108,000 kilometers of coastline, the
longest in the region.

"Our security at seaports and airports is still very limited
compared with other APEC members," Erni said.

"We have to upgrade security to meet STAR's standards," she
said.

Top officials from the APEC region agreed to implement the
STAR initiative during the two days of the APEC conference in
Bangkok last week.

The 21 APEC countries have agreed to work hard to secure the
flow of goods and people through measures which protect cargo,
ships engaged in international voyages, international aviation
and also people in transit.

Budi Dharmadi, the director of the inspection of goods and
services at the ministry, said that the U.S. experts would
inspect the security at a number of seaports and airports,
including Tanjung Priok and Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta,
Belawan port and Polonia Airport in Medan, and Ngurah Rai Airport
in Bali.

"They will also visit Surabaya, Batam and Bintan," Budi said.

The team will also meet with several top officials at the
Ministry of Transportation, airports and seaports.

Fear of terrorism has been on rise in the aftermath of a
series of bomb blasts across the region.

The two highest profile terrorist attacks of recent years --
the attack on the World Trade Center and the Bali nightclub
bombings -- happened in APEC nations.

Last year's APEC summit in Mexico, in which the U.S. made the
Secure Trade initiative for the first time, took place only just
two weeks after the bomb blasts in Bali, which killed more than
200 people, mostly foreigners.

APEC was set up in November 1989 and designed to boost
regional economic cooperation and investment liberalization.

It currently has 21 member countries: Australia, Brunei,
Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines,
Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United
States and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Erni said the two countries were also studying the
possibility of setting up a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA).
The U.S. has agreed to provide financial aid to study the
proposed FTA.