ABSTRACT
Managing trade policy and needed reforms in Indonesia have become more challenging as policy makers are faced with increasingly complex issues. The experience from the 1980s and early 1990s suggest trade reforms brought down costs of doing businesses that subsequently boosted economic growth and generated millions of jobs. Indonesia’s experiences also suggest that reforming trade and investment procedures are effective measures to increase and diversify exports. But the task for trade policy makers has become more complex compared with periods before the Asian economic crisis due to changes in domestic and external environments. The challenges of the post-global fi nancial crisis have made it even more challenging to deal with keeping protectionism, whether the traditional form or otherwise, at bay. Furthermore, as tariffs have come down, trade-related issues have shifted to non-tariff measures and behind the border issues.
