Asean-China FTA

On 1 January 2010, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 10 members of the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) and the People's Republic of China shall be implemented.

As a consequence, 2,528 goods manufactured in the People's Republic of China will be able to enter the ASEAN market free of any customs.

For Indonesia, where most manufacturers of those products have expressed that they are not ready, implementation of FTA would be like committing an industrial suicide.

Business and manufacturers associations like the Indonesian Iron & Steel Industries Association (IISIA), Association of Indonesian Businessman (Apindo), Indonesian Cosmetic Association (Perkosmi), have stated that their products are not yet ready to compete with much cheaper Chinese goods. Even before the FTA, Chinese good have taken quite a large portion of the market share.

The Coordinating Minister for Economy said that 303 products are not ready to compete e.g. cosmetics, textiles, steel, electronics, tires, furniture, cocoa processing, health care instruments, aluminium, upstream petrochemicals, sheet glass, footwear, machine tools and motor vehicles.

Due tho which facts, the Chairman of APINDO Sofyan Wanandi urged the government to use Article 23 of the FTA which enable countries to request for postponement of implementation of the FTA.

For detailed media reports on the above matter, please click here, here, here, here and here.

I hope that the government realize the devastating impact that the FTA will have on our economy i.e. stop of industries which will lead to widespread unemployment, and therefore postphone Indonesia's implementation of the FTA on products which we are still not ready for at least 3 years.


Image: Courtesy of Deplu Junior.

Indonesia-Singapore Agreements

Since Indonesia's independence in 1945, most of the time relationship with Singapore has been very close, especially in the field of commerce, whereby we export and import many commodities through Singapore.

Due to this closeness, in 2007 both countries signed an Extradition Agreement and a Defence Cooperation Agreement. But due to the rejection by our National Parliament i.e the DPR, those agreements have not been ratified, therefore invalid till now.
The DPR has strong reasons to reject said agreement, because their members consider the Extradition Agreement does not make Singapore to extradite Indonesian citizens who were considered fugitives in our country.
In this regards, The Jakarta Post quoted our Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono as saying that there are now 80 such fugitives living in Singapore. They fled our country after the 1998 turmoil in Indonesia, bringing with them lots of money they have corrupted in Indonesia. He also said that Singapore does not want to sign the agreements because it feared that it has to return those money. Meanwhile, according to the First Secretary of the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta, the reason why Singapore refused to sign the agreements because Indonesia has demanded amendments to those agreements.

It is very sad to know that our foreign policy has been made prematurely, causing inconveniences for our country's image. Such inconvenience could have been avoided if prior to signing the agreements, our government discuss them first with the DPR.
Of course it would take longer time, but we would be able to save our country's image.