MINISTER: RI MUST PROTECT ITS DOMESTIC MARKET

Jakarta, Feb 18 (ANTARA) - Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said Indonesia must protect its domestic market to overcome the impact of the current global financial crisis.
"We must protect our country. For the time being we should forget WTO (World Trade Organization)," he said at the ministry's national working meeting here on Wednesday.
He said even the US as the world's most liberal country in trade had also started to protect itself from imported products through its "Buy American" campaign.
"Each country is making various efforts to overcome the crisis," he said. All the efforts, he said, were always based on the national interest.
Therefore, he said, the Indonesian government should also do the same, including increasing the use of domestic products through regulations requiring that state budget funds may only be used for purchasing domestic products/services.
The minister supported the business community's proposal for the government to suspend reduction of import duty on various imported goods in the framework of bilateral or regional free trade agreements with other countries.
"If goods from those countries (that have made an FTA agreement with Indonesia) enter with a low duty our goods might not be able to compete with them such as in the automotive field and therefore its implementation must be suspended," he said.
He admitted that there were still pros and cons among the government officials with regard to protecting the domestic market. He said however that the idea was in line with the message of the 1945 Constitution which had to be used by the government as its reference in dealing with the impact of the crisis.
"Will WTO be able to overcome the welfare problem of the Indonesian people. We must be for domestic products with regard to improving our people's welfare," he said.
To the industry service officials from various regions in the country that attended the meeting the minister appealed to creatively make programs to campaign for increasing the use of domestic products.
"Creativity and initiatives are very important with regard to helping small and medium industries penetrate domestic market," he said.