25/04/2013 (Bernama) - Indonesian economist Enny Sri Hartati assumed that major industrialised states, particularly the United States, conducted 'black campaigns' on Indonesian agro-based products by rejecting inclusion of certain commodities on the list of 54 eco-friendly goods, Indonesian news agency ANTARA reported.

"What the US has done to Indonesian agro-based products was a black campaign to restrict commodities to obtain tariff reduction at five percent," said Enny, who served as director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) on Wednesday.

Enny said although she acknowledged forest degradation took place in Indonesia, she believes forest damage was not caused by palm oil and rubber plantations.

According to her, local crude palm oil companies are planting their trees in industrial forests, not in conservation forest areas.

"The US uses the damaged forest issue as a tool to refuse Indonesian agro-based products, including Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and rubber as well as rattan commodity to be included in the list of eco-friendly goods," Enny said.

"This can affect the market and investment potential in the sector. The environment damage issue will affect investors who are willing to do agro-based business in Indonesia as the products are not included in the environment goods list."

Previously, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers meeting in Surabaya, E Java last weekend failed to agree several additional products in the list of 54 environmental goods to obtain tariff reduction at five percent.

Although several representatives of Chile, Peru and Papua New Guinea were willing to discuss the issue, the US delegates had reportedly refused to discuss the inclusion of CPO and rubber commodities on the list.