Free trade threatens national resilience
Antara, Indonesia
Free trade threatens national resilience
22 January 2010
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) will pose a serious threat to the national economic foundation and resilience.
Member of Golkar Party faction at the House of Representative`s (DPR) Commission-I Fayakhun Andriadi said here on Friday that if ACFA was implemented, it would damage the order of national economic foundation and national resilience.
"Therefore House Commission-I in the context of national defense and resilience needs to summon the trade minister who signed the agreement in 2004," Andriadi said.
According to him, the implementation of free trade agreement with China and Asean countries including Indonesia should have been familiarized since 2004.
"Looking back to the signing of the free trade agreement, it was considered violating the 1945 Constitution because it did not side with national interest," Andriadi said.
He said what the trade minister has caused China to dominate trade in Indonesia and kill both national and local industries.
"It is feared to create unemployment and systemically damage national resilience in a new form, namely economic warfare," he said adding that it could lead to the creation of a special committee (Pansus) to investigate what was behind the signing of the free trade agreement.
