Clearly Indonesia is being boycotted by a a number of countries for failing in meeting its transposition commitment.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Trade Ministry has so far failed to make full use of international trade agreements, as Indonesia always has problem in transposition.

"Our trade partners often found us failing to meet commitment in transposition," Director General of International Trade Cooperation Bachrul Chairi said here on Tuesday.

Clearly Indonesia is being boycotted by a a number of countries for failing in meeting its transposition commitment, Bachrul said on the sidelines of a working meeting on free trade at the office of the chief economic minister.

He said transposition is a five yearly activity by all countries in the world to reach a trade tariff agreement bilaterally , multilaterally or regionally.

"As said by the chief economics minister that reluctance to be engaged in international free trade has resulted in Indonesia losing market and investors were reluctant to come in," he said.

He cited, Indonesia is the largest tuna producer in ASEAN, but European countries slap a high import duty of 22.5 percent on the country tuna fish as against zero import duty on tuna from other ASEAN countries.

The Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam are exempted from import duty on tuna fish although part of their tuna fish is from Indonesian waters.

"The import duty on our commodity make us not competitive," he added.

The chief economics minister has asked the trade minister to review and study each of international trade agreements Indonesia has with other countries.

"The Trade Ministry is asked to wrap up things related to the trade agreements in two months. There are still many to be settled," Bachrul said.

He said it is clear that the government will be open to international trade in line with the instruction of the president and the chief economics minister.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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