Indonesia Economy Threatened by Free Trade Agreement with China

A free trade deal between China and the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) comes into affect this year.

The government Indonesia, which is part of Asean, says removing barriers and ensuring easy cross border trade will help grow the domestic economy.

But many workers are worried they will not be able to compete against a flood of Chinese products and Indonesian farmers, especially, worry that they will soon be out of jobs as consumers choose cheaper Chinese produce.

Thousands of workers have taken to the streets calling for parts of the trade pact to be delayed.

Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from Cipanas in West Java. (03 Jan, 2010)

How is Jim Rogers seeing the future for different countries ?

Jim Rogers "Different countries are going to fare differently. Anyone who’s got commodities is going to do well in this climate. Canada is going to do better than the US, Australia is going to do better than Belgium. I have no idea exactly when the crisis is going to end. Things are going to look better for a while: people see cheap prices, and then they go buy, and then other people see that people are buying and think ‘this is better’ so they join. Then it’s going to fall again. All the spending is going to lead to bigger problems down the road. The idea that you can solve a debt-based problem with more debt is mind-boggling."
From an Interview with China International Business dated September 2009