INDONESIA AND CHINA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27445, 3 September 1954, Page 11

INDONESIA AND CHINA

£6,000,000 Trade Pact Signed

(Rec. 10 pm.) JAKARTA, Sept. 1. K £6.000,000 trade agreement between Indonesia and the Chinese People's Republic was signed today in Jakarta. In the period starting on September 5 till the- end of July, 1955, both countries will exchange goods listed in a «Protocol, which does not mention rubi ®er or oiL However, an additional ; Aide Memoire was added to the procto■f- col which includes a number of goods on which special agreements were - made. This Aide Memoire was not Published and both parties refused to comment on its contents. Indonesia will export to China copra, coconut oil, white and brown sugar, r coffee, palm oil, rattan and a number - w other raw materials. China will r Indonesia with a number of capital goods which were not defined, further newsprint, chemical products, electric apparatus, art silk, stationery, •ports articles, glass, salted fish, chinafucta oods^u^s ’ industrial pro-

co J f erence examined the nine articles of the American draft, which S. . , alread X been published by a Manila newspaper. It was reported today that the dele,reacbed the article suggesting self-help and mutual aid for Southeast Asian nations to improve their economic and political stability. It was understood that British Commonwealth countries attending the conference would ask for clarification of this article. They are anxious to ensure that the article does not interfere with the work of the Colombo Plan and that if S.E.A.T.O. aid were given in South and South-east Asia, it would dovetail with the Colombo Plan in such a way as not to offend or antagonise India, Burma and Indonesia, who, it is hoped, might be induced to join S.E.A.T.O. later. As the preliminary conference began, some Manila newspapers sugthe, Philippine Foreign Minister (Mr Carlos P. Garcia) might resign. The papers reported that Mr yarcia had been summoned yesterPresident Magsaysay and rebuked for haying made so many copies of the American draft treaty and for having distributed four to each member •of the Philippines 18-member delegation to the conference. Earlier yesterday, the American Ambassador (Mr Raymond Spruance) had lodged an official protest with Mr Magsaysay over the leakage of the document to a Manila newspaper. Papers here described this as the first unharmonious hitch in the young republic’s diplomatic relations with the United States.