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RI yet to take full advantage of international trade agreements
The Trade Ministry admits that Indonesia has yet to take full advantage of international economic agreements due to constant problems with unfulfilled transposition
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he Trade Ministry admits that Indonesia has yet to take full advantage of international economic agreements due to constant problems with unfulfilled transposition.
The ministry's director for international trade and cooperation, Bachrul Chairi, said that Indonesia's trade partners often saw Indonesia as uncommitted toward transposing its trading goods.
Transposing involves a five-year activity in which many nations reach agreements on trade tariffs through bilateral, multilateral or regional deals.
He said Indonesia may have been boycotted by several nations for not meeting trade transposition agreements.
'It has been stressed before by [Coordinating Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil] that because Indonesia refuses to engage in international free trade, Indonesia would lose its international markets and investors won't want to enter either,' Bachrul said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara news agency.
Indonesia, he explained, was ASEAN's largest tuna producer but its import duties to the European Union had reached 22.5 percent.
Meanwhile, other ASEAN tuna producers such as Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines were charged zero percent.
'Due to the difference in the taxes, our competition with them is massive,' Bachrul added.
In addressing the situation, the Trade Ministry has asked the coordinating economic minister to reassess every trade agreement Indonesia has made with other nations.
The Trade Ministry was asked to correct the problems relating to these trade agreements in two months. (dyl/nfo)(+++)
