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AKARTA: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be an uneven playing field for Indonesian businesses, given the country’s low ratings in various fields compared to 12 members of the trade bloc led by the US, economist Emil Salim has said.

“Indonesia is an emerging country; a low-middle income country, while the US is high income. The TPP would create an uneven playing field for our country,” Emil said during a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s low productivity, low rating on the Logistics Performance Index, low rating in the ease of doing business, low rating on the Global Competitive Index, poor infrastructure, long port dwell time, unequal distribution of income between the regions and low level of education and health serves would leave the country unable to compete with the 12 participating countries, said Emil.

Other things that may harm Indonesia include the requirement to respect free competition in government procurement; dispute settlement through Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), which requires dispute settlement through international arbitration; liberal competitiveness and business facilitation; equal treatment of state-owned, private and foreign enterprises; and protection of intellectual property rights, he added. — JP