Foreign Minister's Staff Says Global Trade Multilateral System Needs To Be Strengthened

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Stafsus Menlu) Dian Triansyah Djani said that strengthening multilateral systems without double standards is important to deal with and resolve various global trade issues.

"We have to strengthen the credibility of the multilateral system. We need to ensure that international law is carried out without double standards," said Dian Triansyah Djani as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, March 5.

According to him, there needs to be reforms and strengthening of multilateral systems within the Breton Woods institution, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as global trade institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).

He assessed that many countries are now turning to the regionalism concept, because the multilateral trading system and the trade dispute resolution mechanism at the WTO did not go as expected.

"If the multilateral trading system doesn't go the way it should, the dispute resolution mechanism doesn't work well, then what can it do? Countries will prefer the regionalism concept," said Dian.

However, he stated, the application of the regionalism concept was not without challenges, one of which was related to regional resilience to the turmoil of global disruption.

This also prompted Indonesia as the holder of ASEAN chairmanship last year to strengthen regional stability.

"Therefore, when we hold the chairmanship, we make sure to discuss all the thematic issues, including competition between member countries. Previously, we were reluctant to discuss this, but now it is no longer," concluded Dian.