TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
National interests in agriculture trade agreement
We should remain committed to implementing WTO reform because it is more useful for developing countries, such as Indonesia, which tend to be in a defensive position.
Change Size
Boosting growth: Female workers spread fertilizer at an oil palm plantation. (Courtesy of Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR)
Host Indonesia has proposed three agricultural issues to be discussed in the Group of 20 (G20) summit later this year. Departing from the efforts to balance domestic production with export-import, one of the issues being raised is a shared commitment to promoting global agricultural trade. It is hoped that all nations can access food properly.
Global trade cooperation forums include the World Trade Organization (WTO). A ministerial-level meeting, the WTO Ministerial Conference (MC), had been planned in Kazakhstan in 2020 but the pandemic forced it to be postponed to the end of 2021 where it was held in Geneva.
As the only international organization with a "legally binding" nature – although trust in the WTO has begun to erode, especially since the 10th MC negotiations in Nairobi – there is still hope to restore the role of WTO in keeping global trade transparent and predictable. The commitment to implementing WTO reform should be maintained because it is more useful for developing countries, such as Indonesia, which tend to be in a defensive position.
Indonesia plays an important and unique role, as it is still the coordinator of 47 developing countries for the G33, a group trying to counterweigh the position of the large agricultural producing countries that fall under the Cairns group. Indonesia, with its wealth of natural resources and the size of its economy, is a member of both groups that tend to move forward with an offensive approach in negotiations at the WTO.
Until now, developed or large countries and groupings such as the United States, the European Union, China and so on use domestic subsidy instruments to support the competitiveness of agricultural products in international markets. The commitment to abolish agricultural export subsidies was agreed upon at the 10th MC.
Theoretically, the global economic expansion of 5.5 percent in 2021 will be followed by creative destruction from a commodity supercycle (CSC). To anticipate the negative impact of the CSC, several things can be done at this time.
First, governments must take advantage of the windfall from the rising prices of various exported commodities to increase competitiveness and value-added. For example, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has encouraged the development of more downstream palm oil industries.
