Thursday morning 15 September 2016, the Faculty of Economics and Business had the opportunity to be one of the few campuses chosen by the Directorate General of International Trade Negotiations, Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia to socialize the results and process of negotiations which are currently underway. Present on this occasion was the Secretary of the Directorate General of International Trade Negotiations, Mr. Syamsul Bahri. The event, which was initially targeted to be attended by only 100 students, turned out to receive huge interest from students so that the number of participants participating in the socialization agenda reached 230 students.
On this occasion, 3 speakers were presented, all of whom were experts in the field of international economics, both trade and finance. The first speaker is a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia who is also active in LPEM FEB UI, namely Fithra Faisal Hastiadi Ph.D. The second speaker was the Head of the Economics Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Dr. Yose Rizal Damuri. The last one is a lecturer and economist from the Faculty of Economics and Business, namely Rossanto Dwi Handoyo Ph.D.
The three speakers gave their views on the development of international trade cooperation, which in the last two decades has been marked by the emergence of new international trade blocs following the deadlock in negotiations at the WTO (World Trade Organization) level.
This also indicates the increasingly even distribution of power capable of driving international trade activities, which previously was always the domain of developed countries in the northern hemisphere, but is now able to be balanced by the power of developing countries in the southern hemisphere. These trade blocks include ASEAN with several surrounding countries such as China, Australia and Japan, and a trade block that has recently emerged, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The above situation more or less provides an opportunity for Indonesia to optimize its foreign trade achievements. In this context, the Directorate General of Trade Negotiations plays an important role in smoothing national export targets.
This is because international trade activities are not solely influenced by economic factors, but many non-economic factors are also determining variables. Especially the non-tariff barriers imposed by trade destination countries on goods from Indonesia. In the question and answer session and discussion, one of the senior lecturers at FEB UNAIR, Mr. Soebagyo, gave a note about the need for the government to prepare itself carefully before entering a free trade block, especially in terms of the competitiveness of domestic products.
Mr Rossanto also agreed with the same thing that currently Indonesia's competitiveness is still very weak compared to competing countries. So that comprehensive and thorough preparation is an absolute requirement before we decide to become part of the trade agreement block. At the end of the event, Mr. Syamsul Bahri as secretary of the Director General of PPI conveyed several things related to trade negotiation activities with any country. The Directorate General of PPI will not sign an agreement unless the agreement opens up market access for Indonesian entrepreneurs, creates new investment from partner countries, and there is capacity building from partner countries regarding Indonesia's economic performance.
