Domestic Transparency and Trade Policy Making in Developing Countries

1. Domestic Transparency and Trade Policy Making in Developing Countries Hadi Soesastro CSIS, Indonesia

2. Major weaknesses • Lack of clear and precise national interests in trade policy • Lack of transparency in trade policy making • Lack of trade policy capacity • Lack of negotiating capacity in international forums These weaknesses are interrelated

3. Implications • Ineffective in international forums • Trade policy often driven externally • Unable to accommodate domestic concerns Trade policy is increasingly challenge at home

4. Some Illustrations • Thailand’s FTA Policy under Thaksin “FTAs have been rushed, driven by fuzzy foreign-policy goals, and had very little sense of economic strategy” (R.Sally) • ASEAN countries have poorly used ASEAN’s potential diplomatic and bargaining strength in their individual trade policy “There is still great resistance in ASEAN to formulate a coherent common external trade policy”

5. Trade policy making deficit • Poor leadership • Misguided policies • Institutional defects • Top-down process • Lack of administrative capacity and expertise • Lack of public knowledge and debate Trade policy is dominated by “insiders”

6. Democratizing the trade debate? Incorporating the social dimension in trade and investment regimes • To give social justice advocated a “seat at the table”? • To ignore, accommodate or interact with People’s Forum/Summit/Assembly? Mercosur’s Economic and Social Consultative Forum; NAFTA’s “side agreements”; “advisory bodies” in the EU strcuture; a Civil Society Committee in FTAA; EPG’s recommendation for the ASEAN Charter

7. Other Tasks are Essential Democratizing the trade debate only part of policy formulation process • Tasks of trade policy management: - formulating clear, precise definition of national interests in trade policy - developing effective negotiating capacity - ensuring effective domestic implementation of unilateral measures and regional/international agreements

8. What to Do? • Enhance transparency and improving public debate Producing credible, objective policy studies (Australia’s Trade Commission) • Enhance inter-agency coordination Effective interaction with non-border regulatory bodies (Hong Kong’s Coalition of Services Industries) • Enhance negotiating capacity Invest competence in foreign ministries (Brazil, Chile, Australia); Strengthen WTO missions (Singapore)