Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

State-enterprises under threat if Indonesia joins TPP: Experts

"It is true that Soeharto’s New Order regime had played a crucial role in changing Muslim political attitudes. The shift, however, is not only due to Soeharto who ruled the country repressively, but also due to the long and passionate role played by Muslim intellectuals. What is happening in Indonesia is not happening in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. Indonesian intellectuals played an important role in changing Muslim political mindset and attitude.

Through lectures, writings, and actions, they advocated democracy and delegitimized Islamic parties. Unlike in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, the Indonesian reform movement has always been through organizations. Intellectuals such as Abdurrahman Wahid (1940-2009), Ahmad Syafii Maarif (born 1935) and Nurcholish Madjid (1939-2005) are Muslim leaders who chaired big organizations. They spread their liberal ideas to Muslim society through these organizations. Wahid did it through Nahdlatul Ulama (40 million members), Maarif through Muhammadiyah (30 million members), and Madjid through Islamic Student Association and its alumnae (over 10 million members).

In Egypt, the Islamic reform movement has developed in a more solitary manner. Great intellectuals such as Jamaluddin al-Afghani (1837-1897) and Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) did not have any organization where they could spread their ideas. This trend continues until today’s generation of reformers. Intellectuals such as Hassan Hanafi (born 1935) and Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd (1943-2010) are solitary thinkers who do not have big followers. They disseminated their ideas in academic classes, seminars, and scholarly journals. No matter how sophisticated their ideas are, they remain limited and never reached to the grass roots."
Anton Hermansyah, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | Business | Sun, November 29 2015, 7:07 AM"


President Barack Obama listens as Indonesian President Joko Widodo speaks during their meeting
in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on October 26, 2015. (AP/Susan Walsh)

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Whether Indonesia should join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a topic of debate among the public but some economists have said that based on available trade data, joining the TPP may bring benefits to the country.

Berly Martawardaya, an economist with the Institute for Development of Economic and Finance (INDEF), said that out the 12 current members of the TPP, all them had formed free trade agreements (FTAs) with Indonesia, except the US, Canada, Mexico and Peru.

Based on Trade Ministry data, Indonesia’s total trade with those countries -except the US- is not significant. In 2014, the share of total trade with Canada was just 1.38 percent, while with Mexico and Peru 0.55 percent and 0.15 percent, and the US 13.04 percent. Berly added that there would be limitations to implement protective policy.

"Our state-owned enterprises [SOEs] will be in under serious threat because until now they are under protective policies such as government tender," Berly told thejakartapost.com on Saturday.

Former coordinating finance and industry minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita previously said in an analysis published in Kompas on Nov.9 that Indonesia had sufficient FTAs to reach to reach its export targets, namely the ASEAN Free Trade Area, ASEAN-China, ASEAN-India, ASEAN-Japan, ASEAN-South Korea and the future the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will facilitate free trade among ASEAN+6 (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand).

Ginandjar said that rather than joining the TPP, it would be better if Indonesia focused on RCEP, in which Indonesia had a bigger role.

An economist from the School of Economics and Business at the University of Indonesia, Budi Frensidy, said that the government would not be able to force the policy, such as the obligation of local content, since foreign companies would demand equality.

Budi added that the current ASEAN members of TPP shared common traits. "Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam are countries with a limited domestic market, they need the developed TPP member countries’ markets," Budi added.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has mentioned the benefits of joining the TPP, including prompting Indonesia to improve the standard and quality of its products. The competition, he said, would make Indonesia work more efficiently, especially in the face of economic downturn. (dan)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/29/state-enterprises-under-threat-if-indonesia-joins-tpp-experts.html

===

What Indonesia's Support Means for the Trans-Pacific Partnership

COMMENTARY by Alan Wolff November 4, 2015, 4:31 PM EST


Joko Widodo, Indonesia's president-elect, reacts during an interview in Jakarta, Indonesia,
on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. Photograph by Dimas Ardian — Bloomberg via Getty Images

While the U.S. is undecided, the Asian country wants to join the trade deal.

As Congress considers one of the world’s biggest trade deals, many expect a tight vote. A majority of the 2016 presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, have spoken against the Trans Pacific Partnership. Key members of Congress who would normally lead the effort for passage of TPP have expressed initial concerns that the agreement may fall short of some of the rules they had hoped would be included.

But while the U.S. Congress appears undecided thus far, other countries are eager to join the trade deal. Last week, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo announced that his country intends to join the 12 nations that have agreed to create the TPP. Indonesia alone would add about 250 million potential future customers for U.S. goods and services.

And this week, South Korea’s president reiterated the country’s desire to join the trade agreement (with its 50 million population). This comes as the Philippines and Thailand have also expressed support of the TPP. With Taiwan also interested, that adds an additional half billion potential customers whose economies are not part of TPP.

And while China is not included in the TPP, reformers in the country of 1.4 billion people foresee to some day qualifying to join the TPP, according to last week’s official Chinese Communist Part newspaper.

In short, there is a line at the door for countries seeing open markets and a rules-based system, embodied in TPP, as vital to their future well-being.

The TPP is critical to America’s national security and commercial interests. The turning point for America’s interests in Asia occurred two years ago when Japan decided to join the trade agreement. Before TPP, very few people would have imagined Japan and the United States concluding a free trade agreement, linking two of the largest market-oriented economies – at least not for decades. But even before Japan joined the TPP negotiations, a straw in the wind was Vietnam opting to join in – no country in the region on its face has an economy so very different from that of the United States as Vietnam does, and so willing to change.

While the current deal is huge, with its twelve original participants accounting for about 40% of world’s economic activity, focusing solely on TPP as it stands today would be a mistake. Members of Congress, skeptical of whether there was any reality to the promised “rebalancing of America’s relationship with Asia” should see it in TPP, not just as TPP is now, but as what it is likely to become.

America is not alone in paying greater attention to Asia. Its TPP partners in this hemisphere – Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru —have the same vision. Their partners in Australia and New Zealand already do so.

Make no mistake. This vote is not just about another trade deal. It is about America’s future economic relationship with the largest and fastest growing part of the world.

Alan Wolff practices law in Washington D.C. with Dentons. He is a former U.S. Deputy Representative for Trade negotiations and is Chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council.

[ short video on Hillary's changed position on TPP ]

http://fortune.com/2015/11/04/indonesias-support-tans-pacific-partnership/

See also:

"How trade deals like TPP fail the global poor"
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