WTO chief wants early resolution of RI auto dispute
WTO chief wants early resolution of RI auto dispute
MANILA (AFP): World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Renato Ruggiero said yesterday he hoped for an early resolution of an auto complaint lodged before its dispute settlement mechanism against Indonesia.
Japan, the United States and Europe have held a series of bilateral talks with Indonesia after lodging a complaint with the WTO in October in an attempt to get Jakarta to remove measures in its auto policy which the trio claim are discriminatory and against multilateral trade rules.
The case involves Jakarta's so-called national car policy which extends special tax breaks to a car currently being imported by Indonesia's PT Timor Putra Nasional from South Korea.
"We are for the moment in the phase of consultations" with the parties involved in the dispute, Ruggiero told a news conference in Manila after he spoke at a Pacific basin business meeting here.
"We have to see how those consultations will go."
"One of the best records of the dispute settlement procedure is that we have solved 25 percent of the disputes before they really go into the legal side of the procedure," Ruggiero said.
"So we hope this will also be the case for Indonesia." Indonesian President Soeharto ruled in February 1996 that producers of the "national car" would be granted exemptions on import duties and luxury taxes, which add about 60 percent to the price of other cars in Indonesia.
PT Timor Putra Nasional, controlled by Soeharto's son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was chosen as the national car supplier and is required to clear an eventual goal of a local content exceeding 60 percent by 1999.
The cars are being imported from South Korea pending completion of PT Timor's own factory.
Liberalization
Ruggiero also sought Asian backing for a proposed agreement to liberalize trade in financial services by the end of the year.
The trade body has set a July 14 target for receiving liberalization offers from member countries and the end of the year for concluding the negotiations.
"It's very important that the countries of this region will really see these negotiations as a key one for them," the Italian WTO chief told the news conference.
"The participation of countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia is important because of (its) relevance, because of the advantages that the multilateral system has brought to this region, and the importance of the financial institutions in this part of the world."
Ruggiero, speaking earlier Tuesday before Pacific basin business leaders at a regional conference here, said an agreement in the financial services sector would have the same impact on Asia as those triggered by WTO accords on the liberalization of telecommunications and information technology.
"In this sector, as in telecommunications and information technologies, we are building the foundations of the 21st century economy," he said.
"Financial services cannot be viewed through the outdated paradigm of importers and exporters, North and South," he said.
"Developing countries have the greatest need for a competitive financial infrastructure, both to encourage much-needed investment and to compete in the globalized financial markets of the future," he said.
"At the same time, developed economies have a clear interest in an agreement which will open the fastest growing markets to one of their fastest growing industries."
Ruggiero said the WTO was organizing several regional seminars to provide technical assistance for 89 countries "in order to clarify the issues involved with regard to financial services, and to prepare these countries for the negotiations in this area."