Indonesia urges EU to rethink sustainable trade policy

May 6, 2011, 10:33 GMT

Jakarta - Indonesia on Friday urged the European Union not to impose a unilateral policy on environmental sustainability in its trade with developing countries.

The European Union should find ways to balance its concerns for the environment with the need of developing countries for economic growth and better social welfare, Deputy Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar said.

'We understand if there are considerations regarding environmental protection, then it has to be done in a transparent and open way,' he said.

'We don't want policy that is unilateral, which we can interpret as a barrier to trade,' Siregar said.

His remarks were made on the sidelines of a meeting between economic ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht in Jakarta.

'We would like to make use of this good momentum of closer cooperation with the EU to explain what we feel and what we think is the proper way to approach (the issue of sustainable trade),' he added.

ASEAN, a market of more than 500 million people, is the EU's third-largest trading partner, after the United States and China, with more than 175 billion euros (260 billion dollars) of trade in goods and services in 2010.

The EU is ASEAN's second-largest trading partner after China, accounting for around 11 per cent of ASEAN trade.

The EU opened negotiations on free trade agreements with Singapore and Malaysia in 2010, a move which could pave the way for a future deal with the whole region.

On Wednesday, Indonesia and the European Union on Wednesday signed an agreement aimed at stopping illegal logging and exports of illegally-sourced timber.

Indonesia, ASEAN's largest member, is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly owing to the rapid destruction of its forests.

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