Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Visits Jakarta to Discuss Illegal Logging, IPR

September 11, 2007

Bahasa Indonesia

Mark Linscott, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Environment and Natural Resources, led a delegation to Indonesia from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) September 5-7, 2007. The delegation met with key Indonesian government officials at the Investment Coordinating Board, Ministries of Industry and Forestry, the National Intellectual Property Rights Working Group, the ASEAN Secretariat and a group of business leaders and NGO activists to discuss a wide range of issues, including illegal logging, intellectual property rights (IPR) and bilateral trade.

“I truly appreciate the partnerships we have with the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Trade on the issue of illegal logging, as well as the dialogue we have been able to establish with NGOs concerned with this issue. NGOs play a very important role both in Indonesia and in the United States on illegal logging” Linscott said.

Regarding future U.S.-Indonesia cooperation on illegal logging, Linscott said, “I plan to return to Jakarta soon with my State Department counterparts to lead an inter-agency delegation to talk about the next steps in US-Indonesian cooperation on illegal logging.”

Other Members of the USTR delegation included Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Doug Bell, Director for South East Asia David Katz and Director of the Office of Intellectual Property Rights Rachel Bae.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is the U.S. government agency which negotiates directly with foreign governments to create trade agreements, resolve trade disputes and participate in global trade policy organizations. They also meet with governments and other groups to gather input on trade issues and explain the U.S. President’s trade policy positions.

Mark Linscott was named Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Environment and Natural Resources in October 2003, after serving as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative since July 2002.

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