Australia: Trade pact with Indonesia in cold storage
Fibre2Fashion
Australia : Trade pact with Indonesia in cold storage
September 19, 2006
Though plans were announced for a feasibility study on a bilateral deal between the two countries, a Free Trade Agreement between Indonesia and Australia is still a distant dream.
Textiles and clothing, and tough Australian quarantine regulations governing the importation of fresh food, would be among the contentious areas in the prospective negotiations.
Still, a deal was a low priority for the two countries, because their trading concerns lay elsewhere, according to the Secretary-General of Indonesia’s Trade Ministry, Hatanto Reksodiputro, who was in Melbourne last week for a conference on business opportunities in Indonesia.
The apparent reason is Indonesia was focused on securing a free-trade deal with Japan, its No 1 trading partner, while Australia was busy negotiating agreement with China, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc.
However, in the next five years Indonesia will go stronger in its reforms and Australia would be more attracted to it.
As of now, Indonesia ranks 13th among the buyers of Australian exports, while Australia is Indonesia’s 11th largest customer for its products, which include rubber, wood, textiles and footwear.
Bilateral trade between Australia and Indonesia was worth $8.9 billion last year.
