“The hazard stems from our ill preparation,” Web Warouw, the secretary-general of the People’s Health Council (DKR), said in Jakarta after a press conference about the CAFTA and its effect on people’s health.

The media heard the biggest trade area among developing countries would produce serious and often hazardous effects on people’s health and their access to decent, affordable healthcare.

China and Indonesia are set to establish free trade, which will allow products from both countries to flow more freely between the two countries by the end of this year.

The economy of the regions included in the CAFTA after the mechanism is fully implemented is predicted to involve 1.8 billion consumers, US$6 trillion in GDP, and $4.5 trillion in trade.

The implementation of the CAFTA will cause the average goods tariff from ASEAN countries to China to be slashed from 9.8 to 0.1 percent.

The six original ASEAN members, which includes Indonesia, will reduce the average tariff on Chinese goods from 12.8 percent to 0.6 percent.

Web said the free trade area would encourage China to flood the country with drugs and private health institutions. The drugs could provide cheaper alternatives for Indonesian patients, but their quality and legality might be questionable, he added.

“Would the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency [BPOM] really be able to monitor all of those drugs?” Web said.

Indonesia has been dependent on other countries for its drugs, with 90 percent of ingredients for pharmaceutical drugs imported from China, he added.

Web said that more private and foreign-owned hospitals would spring up in the country after the CAFTA and would make the price of healthcare more volatile.

“At first hospitals might provide cheap treatments, but in the long run the market will determine the price of healthcare, with the government having very little power over those prices,” he said.

Siti Fadilah Supari, a former health minister, said the government should prepare people to face the consequences of the CAFTA, especially in terms of healthcare.

“People are already turning to products from China even before the CAFTA,” she said, referring to people who favor traditional Chinese medicine or treatments to local ones.

According to Siti, the government should enforce regulations, such as a 2008 Health Ministry regulation on drug registration or the 2009 Hospitals Law to combat the unwanted effects of the free trade area. The hospital law stipulates the necessity of regular assessments of hospitals and the government’s obligation to guarantee healthcare for the poor.

Huzna Zahir from the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) said the possible flood of drugs and health services could have both negative and positive impacts. On the downside, she highlighted the possibility of uncontrolled quality.

“The drugs may not be tested in their own country and our own controlling system is not very good either,” she said.

However, Huzna said that tough foreign competition might encourage the local health industry to improve. (dis)

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