'Washington likely to extend GSP facility for RI'
BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): After a four-day tour of various parts of Indonesia including East Timor, a senior U.S. congressman expressed optimism that the United States would extend its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facility for Indonesia.
"I believe there is more than a possibility of Indonesia being extended the GSP... and there is better than a 50 percent chance that it will be renewed," said Bill Archer, chairman of the U.S. Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for all trade and tax policies.
Archer is currently in the country with congressman E. Clay Shaw, who is the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, congresswoman Nancy Johnson, the chairwoman of the sub-committee on Oversight, and Kenneth Kies, the chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.
"I wish I could say it was a 100 percent chance, but we have to debate it and get the majority of the votes," Archer told The Jakarta Post.
The Ministry of Trade announced last month that the U.S. Congress had failed to reach a decision on whether or not the United States should extend the GSP trade facility, which expired on July 31.
Thus, it was stipulated that all goods entering the United States or taken out of U.S. warehouses after Aug. 1 would not get any import duty exemption generally offered under the GSP facility.
The United States has lately been criticizing what it considers Indonesia's unfavorable record on workers rights and human rights.
Washington threatened earlier this year to revoke Indonesia's trade privileges under the GSP unless Jakarta improved its labor record.
Decision
Archer said yesterday that discussions on the GSP may take place around October and the U.S. Congress may reach a decision before the end of this year.
He pointed out, however, that extending the GSP would score as a revenue loss.
"Under our budget act, we can't do anything that will increase our deficit, so we have to find other sources of revenues to offset that," he said.
"And whenever we have to find extra revenues (to cover those losses) from somewhere else, that becomes very unpopular," Archer added.
He said that the Congress people's visit to Indonesia was meant to obtain first-hand information on situations in Indonesia because he considered many things in the U.S. domestic media as "not always accurate".
The entourage yesterday made a one-day visit to the plywood mill and planting grounds of PT International Timber Corp. Indonesia (ITCI), which is jointly owned by the Army's Kartika Eka Paksi Foundation, timber tycoon Muhammad (Bob) Hasan, the ruling Golkar party, several foundations headed by President Soeharto and the Bimantara Citra Group, which is chaired by one of President Soeharto's sons.
According to available data, ITCI currently controls concessions of more than 500,000 hectares in East Kalimantan. The company has also won praise from various officials and ecological experts for its sound management.
In June, the Ministry of Forestry transferred 290,000 hectares of forestry concessions previously held by plywood maker PT Kayan River Timber Production to ITCI.
The group was led to ITCI's planting grounds by Bob Hasan, who was accompanied by the Ministry of Forestry's Director General for Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto.
Hasan yesterday explained to them the government's forest sustainable management policy.
The Congressmen, all of whom are from the Republican party, arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday and have so far visited East Timor, Bali and Yogyakarta.
The group, which is here at the invitation of the Minister of Defense and Security, is scheduled to attend the Independence Day ceremony on Thursday and will return to the United States on Friday. (pwn)