JAKARTA, Sept. 17 (Xinhuanet) --Indonesian officials and analysts deplored the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, blaming an insistence by developed countries on pushing their demand for the breakdown.

　　Industry and Trade Minister Rini Soewandi said developed countries showed no goodwill to create a fair system in global trade needed by developing countries to reduce poverty rate.

　　"The attitudes by developed countries during the WTO forum give us a very clear sign that developing countries will continue suffering poverty because developed countries keep on imposing tariff and non-tariff barriers on agriculture products from developing countries," the minister said in a statement reaching here Wednesday.

　　"We will continue having trade with developed countries. But at the same time we need to expand our markets to reduce reliance on developed countries," said Rini who led the Indonesian delegation to the WTO meeting.

　　Ministers of the 146 WTO members have gathered at Cancun to seek progress toward a new trade liberalization pact but differences emerged and focused on demands from developing countries for developed countries to cut farm subsidies and tariffs.

　　Mari Pangestu, a noted economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), wrote in the Jakarta Post newspaper Wednesday that the recent failure of the WTO talks reflects "the continual lack of regard of the major WTO members tothe interest and concerns of developing countries."

　　Mari, who is also co-coordinator of the Task Force on Poverty and Development for the UN Millennium Projects, urged developed countries to eliminate all export subsidies and phase out domesticsupport that affects developing countries' exports and reduces their agriculture tariffs.

　　"For developing countries, the issue is the speed and depth of tariff reduction, the removal of tariff peaks and escalation in developed country markets, and the specter of non-tariff barriers rising as tariffs fall, which can negate improved market access," she said.

　　Commenting on the WTO talks failure, Agriculture Minister Bungaran Saragih said in Surabaya, the second largest city of Indonesia, that the international grouping must not deal merely with tariffs and subsidies in global trade.

　　He said WTO must be able to address the crucial issue on development, to help developing countries reduce poverty rate, escalate food security and preserve environment.

　　"Global trade must deal not only with tariffs and subsidies. Global trade is for development," he said.

　　But response from businesses is somewhat different as they see the failure from a perspective that developing countries have gained a victory against the West, because for the first time in WTO history, they refused to let the United States and the European Union play a dominating role in the negotiations for their favor.

　　"Indonesia is among the countries that will gain from this result. It is a victory for us," said Aburizal Bakrie, chairman ofthe Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

　　"Our agriculture sector would have been badly affected if the talks led to the liberalization of global trade. Our farmers cannot compete with their overseas counterparts even in the home market, because the latter can sell their products at cheaper prices," he said.

　　Thomas Dharmawan, chairman of the Indonesian Food and BeveragesAssociation, meanwhile said the failure or success of the WTO talks does not mean much to businesses in Indonesia because "they are not ready for anything."

　　"There are so many problems at home, like illegal fees and an inefficient bureaucracy. The government should overcome these problems before stepping further into trade talks at the WTO," he said.

　　But Indonesia, where agriculture sector shares some 40 percent in gross domestic product and employment, badly needs a fair global trade system to protect farmers, who suffer most from the massive inflows of imported agriculture products.

　　Several agriculture commodities at home are threatened by imported products sold here at very cheap prices. The commodities include sugar, rice, soybean and corn, regarded here as basic commodities.

　　Indonesian farmers make up the majority of people living below or at the poverty line as they unable to raise their incomes due to stiff competition from imported agriculture products.

　　For Indonesia, the WTO talks would be successful only if developed countries had agreed to eliminate subsidies and tariffson their farm products, which eventually will lead to open their markets more widely to developing nations. Enditem