VIVAnews - Protectionism measures will be a prominent agenda of the 7th WTO’s Ministerial Conference (KTM) which is planned to be held from November 30 to December 2, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland.
For the meeting of 153 countries, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu was appointed one of the three vice chairs together with HE Andres Velasco from Chili as the Chair.
The conference, according to Pangestu, would discuss issues related to what WTO could do to help overcome the crisis.
“Another agenda would be the topic that has constantly been discussed at G20 and ASEAN meetings, which is protectionism,” Pangestu said at the office of Ridwan Rais in Jakarta on Wednesday, November 25.
The ministerial conference would talk about the prevention of protectionism as a part of the answer to economic recovery.
In other words, according to Pangestu, world economic recovery could actually be sustainable of the flow of trade and investment is not facing any challenge.
“This will most likely be talked about during the discussion of our working session because currently, every three months WTO is issuing some sort of list of policies implemented by every country,” the minister said.
She also said WTO’s observation shows a fairly significant increase in this year’s dumping and safeguard instruments. “Developing and developed countries are doing it because it’s every country’s right,” Pangestu said.
Unlike previous conference, the coming KTM will not be focusing on agreement structures, but more on transparency and open discussions.
“Although there is no negotiation, the relevance toward national interest remains high because as the coordinator of G-33, Indonesia will be heading the G-33 Summit which will discuss issues such as Special Safeguard Measures (SSM),” Pangestu said.
The particular issue is an important instrument to the developing countries in order to protect their farmers from sudden increase in numbers of imported products and the slump of farmer products’ prices.
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Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
