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Multilateral trade preferred over bilateral, plurilateral: WTO
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Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita answers questions on the sidelines of a press briefing at his office in Jakarta. (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
W
orld Trade Organization (WTO) member countries have agreed that multilateral trade negotiations are better than bilateral and plurilateral trade as it avoids the domination of trade rules by one country amid growing protectionism concerns.
"The system managed by the WTO is the best multilateral trade scheme today," Trade Minister Enggartiasto "Enggar" Lukita said after an informal meeting with WTO country members' ministers on Saturday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Other alternatives would just be chaos, where one could punish the other on a unilateral basis without proper legal process,” he said in a statement.
(Read also: Indonesia revises down export growth target in 2017)
The organization will hold the 11th ministers' conference (KTM) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December. However, a decision on the topics of the conference has seen slow progress, pending the US' trade stance following the new administration of President Donald Trump.
Enggar warned members to start preparing for the next KTM and to make follow-ups from previous conferences in Bali and Nairobi as well as the settlement of public stockholding proposals and special safeguard mechanisms the main focuses of the 11th KTM. (bbn)
