The trade war between the United States and China has been disrupting the global supply chain by suppressing world trade development continuously. Not only as a threat, Indonesia should see this war as a cooperative rivalry which includes both cooperation and competition. Indonesia needs to see the opportunity without forgetting the threat lies behind and vice versa. All this time, Indonesia has been seeing China as a threat, but now is the time to change.
“The trade war is inevitable, but this is a cooperative rivalry,” said International Relations Analyst from President University Teuku Rezasyah in General Lecture at President University with the theme of “The Implementation of US-China Trade War on Asia-Pacific” on July 2, 2019.
Aside from Rezasyah, this General Lecture was also attended by Directorate General of Asia-Pacific and Africa Ministry of Foreign Affairs Indonesia Santo Darmosumarto, Director of International Industrial Access Ministry of Industry of Indonesia Dody Widodo, and Political Analyst from President University Muhammad A.S. Hikam. This General Lecture gained a huge enthusiasm from International Relations students of President University.
Rezasyah added that China has been strengthening new economic initiatives such as forming the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and other Free Trade Agreement at bilateral levels, be a major power in the South China Sea, and build strategic relations with various parties. Therefore, China has already prepared for the Trade War. In fact, the country was also ready to make a profit if the Trade War come to an end.
Meanwhile, Santo Darmosumarto argued that Trade War will not benefit anyone. “In every war, everyone loses. What’s important is that we see the opportunity behind this. As for Indonesia to be able to benefit from this trade war, we need to give more attention to potentially exported commodities. The first thing to be done is to improve our infrastructures,” said Santo.
This statement was also agreed by Dody who mentioned that Indonesia actually has the opportunity to develop exports more broadly. “All this time, we only export our raw materials. Now is the time to take steps forward and join the global supply chain,” Dody continues.
This general lecture gave students a better understanding of the connection between theory and practice in trade diplomacy. Through this general lecture, audiences received accurate and good-quality information about the G20 Summit that recently held in Osaka, Japan.