UPH Department of International Relations & UPH CITI Delivered an Interim Report to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia

UPH Department of International Relations, in cooperation with UPH Center for International Trade and Investment, delivered an Interim Report to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. The report is part of a joint research project entitled ?Economic Diplomacy Performance: Evaluation on International Trade and Investment Agreements?. This event was hosted by Fikry Cassidy – Head of Research and Policy Development at the International Organization (P3K-OI) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and attended by representatives from the Department of International Relations UPH, UPH CITI, and several representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The event started with a few words from Prof. Aleksius Jemadu, Ph.D. ? Dean of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of UPH as well as the Lead Researcher of the project. He delegates his speech by quoting President Joko ?Jokowi? Widodo and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Retno L.P. Marsudi the importance of economic diplomacy for the last one year, as the introduction of the research. In the research, Center for Policy Planning and Development for International Organization (BPPK P2K-OI) and UPH took the initiative to have a joint research by using what has been echoed by President Jokowi and Minister Retno as the contextual background. Furthermore, three big issues are highlighted in the research, which are food security, environmental goods, and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ?The research will result in a policy recommendation for the government to create a policy alignment covering the three issues.? State Prof. Aleksius.

Soon after, Dr. Michelle Limenta ? Director of UPH CITI explained the progress of the report further.  In the discussion of food security policy in Indonesia, according to Dr. Limenta the country only do importation of food when domestic supply is not sufficient. She also emphasized on the common misinterpretation of most people on food security, which often interpreted as self-sufficiency. According to her, food security is not only about quantity, but more importantly the quality. ?Food security is not about when the producers successfully produce enough supply for the country, but the sustainable access to food by the society?, Dr. Limenta added.

In the context of the issue on environmental goods, Dr. Limenta said that nowadays Indonesia is still lack of human resources and fund in promoting environmental goods and green industry. However, in providing incentives for the green industry, Indonesian government should be cautious so that those incentives would not violate Agreement on Subsidy and Countervailing Measures governed by the World Trade Organization. She suggested that government should take more well-designed measures in handling this issue.

Furthermore, Dr. Limenta also brought up the discussion on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS often become an obstacle for the government to exercise its regulatory autonomy, and the consistency and predictability in interpreting clauses in BITs are varied from panel to panel. ?Indonesia has decided to terminate more than 60 of its BITs with its trading partners. Discontinuing instead of terminating the BITs would be a wise move for Indonesia.? She added.

The report delivery received a positive response from the senior diplomats that attended this event. There are many inputs, among others are providing concrete steps to be taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in dealing with these issues, providing policy options for the Indonesian government to regulate the products that are environmentally friendly and an effort to explore cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries involved in dealing with issues this. (of /rh/mf)