AFTA is an abbreviation of
ASEAN Free Trade Area is an agreement of the ASEAN
countries. It's an ASEAN policy to improve
the economic competitiveness of ASEAN member.
Agreed on January 28, 1992 in Singapore when the summit
SEAN 4th held. At first there were six countries agreed AFTA, namely:
Indonesia,
Brunei
Darussalam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and
Singapore.
Then Vietnam
joined in 1995, while
Laos and Myanmar
joined in 1997, and
last Cambodia joined
in 1999.
At
the meeting each of the head state announced it would form a free trade area in
ASEAN within 15 years. AFTA is a form or agreement from ASEAN countries to
establish a free trade area in order to improve economic competitiveness of the
ASEAN region to make ASEAN as a production base of the world will be achieved
within 15 years (1993-2003), then accelerated into 2003, and finally accelerated
again to 2002. If calculated, it should be effectively run in full in 2007.
But, in the fact AFTA will be active in 2015, 22 years later.
Common
Effective Preferential Tariffs For ASEAN Free Trade Area (CEPT-AFTA) scheme is
a scheme to realize AFTA by tariff reduction up to 0-5%, elimination of quantitative
restrictions and non-tariff barrier. Recent developments related to AFTA is an
agreement to abolish all customs duties for import of goods in 2010 for
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, also for Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2015.
Product
are categorized in the General Exception is that products do not need to be
permanently incorporated into the CEPT-AFTA, for reason of national security,
safety, or health of humans, animals and plants, as well as to preserve the
archeological objects and culture. Indonesian categorizing product in a group
of weapons and ammunition, alcoholic beverages, and so on as much as 68 tariff
lines as the General Exception.
B. Indonesian attitudes to face the AFTA and
compete with other countries in it.
1. The Concept of National Interest.
National Interest is the objectives to be achieved in relation to the needs of the nation /
country or in
connection with the aspired. In
this case the national interest is
relatively fixed and equal
among all state
/ nation is
security (including the survival of its people and the needs of the
region) as well as welfare.
Both of these are security of welfare (prosperity). National interest
identified with the national goals. For example, economic development interests, the interests of development and improvement of the
quality of Human Resources or
foreign investment interests to accelerate
the pace of industrialization.
The national interest is often used as a benchmark or principal
criteria for decision makers of each country prior
to formulate and establish attitudes or
actions. In fact, every step of foreign policy should be based to the national
interest and is directed to achieving and
protecting what is classified
or designated as National
Interest. [1]
So, the head of state should be considering the
interests of his/her country to make decisions that lead to AFTA.
2. The concept of foreign policy.
Every country must have a national
interest to be achieved. National
interests of each country manifested in the implementation
of foreign policy. A study of the
foreign policy become so essential to assess, given
the willingness of a country to
always exist in
the international arena is
increasing from time to time.
As a subject of study,
the study of foreign policy to learn how to analyze and describe the foreign
policy of a country by
concentrating on common symptoms are sticking
on the surface, both in terms of pattern, nature, and
type of foreign policy is based on the context
and purpose formulation.
In addition, this study also focuses on the factors
that influence the determinants of the policy to be taken by the decision
makers (Wicaksana, 2007: 20). The study of foreign policy has traditionally
been concentrated on efforts to maintain and improve the capability of the
power and security of a country through to avoid war if possible, decided to
fight back if necessary, and maintain the integrity of nation borders
(Breuning, 2007:5)
Foreign policy always proclaimed based on national
interest in order to achieve the national goal, which is an elaboration of the
national goals of the nation state interest (Morgenthau, 1977 in Wicaksana,
2007: 20). Thus, foreign policy closely related or associated with the desire to
achieve certain national interest and become an essential instrument in building the nation's interstate
interaction.
In any decision process, decision makers always strive to provide the best
for his country, although sometimes irrational decisions taken and deemed
unpopular by many. Example is the decision of Chamberlain, the British Prime
Minister, to compromise with Hitler in the Munich Conference in 1938 related to
the region Sudetenland.
C. The Concept Of Role
Theory
According to Dougherty & Pritchard (1985) in
Bauer (2003: 55),
role theory provides
a conceptual framework
in the study of behavior in organizations. They stated
that the role was "involves the creation of a product as opposed to
a pattern of behavior
or action" (p. 143). Furthermore,
Dougherty & Pritchard
(1985) in Bauer
(2003: 56) suggests that the relevance of a
role it will
depend on the
emphasis of the role of the assessors and observers
to the product or
the resulting outcomes. In this regard, strategies
and organizational structures are also
shown to influence the perception of the role or
roles and role
perception (Kahn, et al., 1964; Oswald, Mossholder, &
Harris, 1997 in
Bauer, 2003: 58).
There are two types of behavior
expected in a job, namely (1) the role of perception:
that one's perception of how people were expected to
behave; or in
other words is the understanding
or awareness of the patterns of behavior or functions expected of the
person, and (2) role expectation: that
is how others accept one's behavior in certain situations. With the role is played by a person in the organization,
will form an important
component in terms of identity and that
person's ability to work. In this case, an organization must ensure that
these roles have been clearly defined. This theory is very suitable for use in the
implementation of AFTA 2015.
AFTA Challenge for Indonesia in 2015
1. Educational Challenges
If you look at the developed countries in ASEAN such as Singapore, they look more advanced
education. What about Indonesia?
How to deal with the invasion of the
workers' output results in ASEAN countries
such as Singapore? In
one of the effects of AFTA is every citizen of ASEAN member
countries can go to school or work in each ASEAN member countries.
In fact education in Indonesia
is still a bit messy. A simple example is an electrical engineering graduate
working in banking, or someone who works not in his field of expertise. Education in this country
is still on target to recognize the
potential of students with
targeted, so that students can maximize
their potential. In other hand, maybe with the AFTA in
2015 could increasing rate of unemployment in Indonesia.
2.
Trade Challenges
Indonesia will only be used as a selling point of the other
ASEAN countries. A simple example is a smart phone which comes from other countries. Indonesia
is only used as a place to sell their products. With the AFTA in 2015, Indonesia
will lose trade competitiveness with other ASEAN countries.
The
Advantage of AFTA 2015 for Indonesia.
1. Work Permit in ASEAN Countries More Easily.
Indonesian professionals already supposed to work abroad, do not want to just state
of Indonesia
which was colonized by another
country. Time for Indonesia to be the "ex-pat" in other countries. Salaries
in ASEAN countries
such as Singapore
and Malaysia
will certainly larger than in Indonesia.
Time for professional educated workforce contribute
to foreign exchange for the
country.
2.
Utilization of Tourism as a Source of Foreign
Exchange
Indonesia is rich in natural resources and tourism location is
a lot of interest among tourists.
Natural resources are depleting make Indonesia should
think about more things that can increase revenue
for the state.
With the utilization of existing tourism,
Indonesia will be able to survive and compete with
other countries in ASEAN. Indonesia has
a complete tourism locations and exotic
place to visit that stretches from Sabang to Merauke.
There are several important things that can make Indonesia can survive, or
even can take
advantage of AFTA in 2015 to make it more advanced countries. Good education, law enforced,
discipline, and a spirit of optimism to
get ahead of each citizen.
If all of these
things can be done
well, Indonesia
could become prosperous again as in ancient
times.
C. Conclusion
AFTA is a form of
cooperation in the ASEAN countries to improve the economy in its member
countries to present the form of free trade among ASEAN countries. One of the
important points that can be seen from the implementation of AFTA is tariff
reductions for goods up to 0-5%.
Indonesia as one of the ASEAN
member countries will surely run well this policy. In order to face the
challenges of AFTA in 2015 there are several steps that must be considered to
Indonesian government, namely : where the concept of national interest therein
suggested that the government should consider the interest of the people and
the nation in making decisions on the implementation of AFTA in 2015, a
favorable decision for Indonesia and the application and understanding theory of
the role properly.
D. Literature
Menuju
ASEAN Economic Community (PDF). http://ditjenkpi.kemendag.go.id/website_kpi/Umum/Setditjen/Buku%20Menuju%20ASEAN%20ECONOMIC%20COMMUNITY%202015.pdf.
Accessed May, 23th 2014
Implementasi
Kebijakan Luar Negeri (PDF). http://pustaka.unpad.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/13_implementasi_kebijakan_luar_negeri.pdf.
Accessed May, 24th 2014
Penjelasan Umum Tarif. http://www.tarif.depkeu.go.id/.
Accessed May, 25th 2014
ASEAN
Free Trade Area (AFTA Council).
http://www.asean.org/communities/asean-economic-community. Accessed May 27th,
2014
BAPPENAS. http://ditpolkom.bappenas.go.id.
Accessed June, 5th 2014
Peran Indonesia
dalam AFTA. http://prezi.com. Accessed June, 6th
2014
ASEAN Free Trade Agreement: Overview, Trends and Challenges.
http://www.canasean.com/home/asean-free-trade-agreement-overview-trends-and-challenges-1.
Accessed June, 8th 2014
ASEAN
Free Trade Agreements : Policy and Legal Considerations for Development (PDF). http://www.aseanlawassociation.org/9GAdocs/w3_Thailand.pdf.
Accessed June, 8th 2014
ASEAN
Free Trade Agreement. http://www.worldtradelaw.net/fta/agreements/afta.pdf.
Accessed June, 8th 2014
[1] T.May Rudy,
Strategic Study in
the transformation of the International System Post-Cold War, Refika Aditama, Bandung, 2002,
p 116
DEKRIS PRATAMA
DEKRIS PRATAMA
1301120520
International Relations, Faculty of Social
and Political Science,
Riau University
Bina Widya Campus Km.
12,5 Simpang Baru, Pekanbaru 28293
Telp : (0761) 63266, Fax : (0761) 63279, 65593
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