INDUSTRY MINISTER READY TO BECOME ACFTA RE-NEGOTIATOR

Jakarta, Jan 14 (ANTARA) - Industry Minister MS Hidayat said he was ready to be tasked with renegotiating the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement.

"If I am appointed as a re-negotiator of the ACFTA agreement, I am ready," Hidayat said on Thursday after opening a discussion on the growth and efficiency of the Indonesian services sector.

He said his ministry had proposed the modification and postponement of the lowering of a number of tariff posts under the ACFTA agreement.

Renegotiation of the ACFTA agreement is possible because it has a clause which allows it. "The agreement has a clause which enables renegotiation," he said.

The government has formed a team comprising representatives of various departments and business associations to renegotiate the ACFTA and the Common Effective Preferential Trade of ASEAN (CEPT AFTA).

The team is expected to increase the effectiveness of domestic market supervision of smuggled goods and supervision of goods circulating at home.

CEPT AFTA agreement started in 1992 with ASEAN FTA and was followed up with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2003 which was to be realized in 2015.

In 2002, a comprehensive agreement on ASEAN-China economic cooperation which served as a basis for the ASEAN-China FTA negotiation in 2004.

Since its implementation in 2004 the process of tariff reduction to zero percent has continued to be implemented and a total of 8,654 tariff posts have reached zero percent even before 2010.

For the ASEAN-China FTA in 2010, a total of 1,597 tariff posts of commodities have seen their tariffs reduced to zero percent, so that up to 2010 the total tariff lines of commodities whose tariffs were reduced to zero percent have reached 7,306 tariff posts.

Based on inputs from the business world, 227 tariff lines in the CEPT AFTA needed to renegotiated because they had the potentials to weaken industries.

While for the ACFTA, a total of 228 tariff posts needed to be renegotiated.