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nother author has written an excellent piece on the effects of government price controls on food price stability. The core problem is that the government espouses socialist redistribution policies and enacts protectionist laws, while at the same time the laws are drafted to enhance profits of domestic monopolistic positions.

If the government were to allow imports from any country with good food quality standards and leave out the quota garbage, it would be able to import what it cannot produce effectively and focus the national economy on what can be produced more efficiently than by other nations.

This idea is called comparative advantage and it has been shown to increase living standards in countries that follow it, as opposed to reductions of living standards in countries that don'€™t.

As for selecting trading partners to avoid countries you take offense to, this is OK as long as you are willing to make the population pay higher prices.

Removing quotas and allowing business to business trade without the involvement of the trade minister and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) would allow the market to decide the source of its goods.

If the Australians are too flighty, then the market will turn to Russian or Indian sources as long as they can get the same product at comparable prices.

This is the real issue for Indonesian trade policy, not whether specific trade partners are nice chaps.

Testi