Indonesia Tuesday expressed its hope that the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Peru could accelerate the Jakarta-Bogor goal achievement and complete the Doha Round Negotiations.
The forum should proceed with the pace of implementation further, and not only matters of policy, spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry Teuku Faizasyah said.
"We hope that the leaders (of APEC members) will concern the achievement with the Jakarta-Bogor Goal which was set in 1994 to build free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific no later than the year 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies," he told Xinhua by phone on Tuesday.
The APEC members should also accelerate the Bogor Goal to liberalize multilateral trading system, in spite of the impacts of global financial crisis on some members.
He said that Indonesia had laid strong foundation for liberalization including all technical procedures. The economies should avoid distortion of non-trade related issues such as terrorism. "That is not the domain of APEC, we should really focus on trade issues, and more on the pace of implementation," he said.
Meanwhile, Herry Sutanto, an expert with Indonesian Trade Ministry said that the APEC members will continue discussing the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) at the 2008 APEC and achieve the target of completing the negotiations.
"APEC will stress on the follow up to DDA. It is not finished yet. Therefore the leaders set the target to finish it in this year," he told Xinhua.
DDA will be discussed by the leaders of APEC member economies and has been targeted to reach finalization at the forum scheduled for Nov. 16 to 23 in Peru.
Sutanto said that all trade issues were highly connected to the establishment of regional economic integration among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.
"There is a synergy between APEC and World Trade Organization (WTO) forum. APEC is supportive to strengthen a multilateral trade system. Japan, China and the United States still play important roles in the global economy," he said.
Sutanto did not quite agree by forming an opinion that WTO talk collapsed. The fact is that the process of liberalization on agriculture sector is still going on. Some members conducted group meetings regularly based on what they need to aim.
At the same time, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said that the APEC Forum in Peru will be a follow up to the proceeding of international issues as what were discussed previously in ASEM (Asian Europe Meeting) in Beijing and G-20 in Brazil. She also agreed with Sutanto's statement that DDA should be prioritized for finalization.
"We will discuss the global financial crisis for sure, including food and energy security, climate change and the follow up to Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. All trade agreements and messages will be discussed in regard with Doha agenda," she added.
Source: Xinhua
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