VIVAnews - Free trade agreement between ASEAN and Australia and New Zealand will likely lead to taking over of natural resources in Indonesia mainly mineral and coal mining.
"This is because the investment sector is regulated in this agreement, not just goods and services trading. Even intellectual property is being regulatede [in the agreement]," said a researcher of Institute for Global Justice, Ponny Anggoro, during a discussion on Monday, Feb 9.
The agreement, said Anggoro, will involve more than 400 Australian and New Zealand companies, especially those operating in mining and infrastructure development. "What's troublesome is that this agreement might trigger those thwo countries to loot Indonesia's natural resources because they have dominant interests in mineral and coal mining," Anggoro said.
The agreement was also viewed as siding too much with investors. "The agreement includes principles of pre-establishment, provisions on investors' protection and settlement of investors' conflicts with the government," said Anggoro. The pre-establishment principle specifies pre-investment potential losses. "Therefore, should investment be canceled, then investors may acquire compensation from the government," he said.
Anggoro said several issues that are still being debated in the multilateral forum of World Trade Organization (WTO) will be easily stepped over and bypasssed by the agreement. Some crucial issues in the WTO forum which are delayed include Singapore issues concerning investment, goods and services provisions for the government and policies on competition.
With regard to services sector, Institute for Global Justice pointed out that Australia and New Zealand will prepare a commitment which surpasses WTO regulation. "This will trigger services liberalization which will exceed the WTO agreement," said Anggoro.
Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono
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