Gov’t Pushes for Completion of IEU-CEPA Talks

President Jokowi leads a limited meeting at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (07/13). (Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat)

The Government will push for finalization of five strategic issues in a bid to accelerate the completion of all negotiations for Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) to the end of 2023.

The decision was made as a result of a limited meeting led by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Thursday (07/13).

After the limited meeting, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto told the press that Indonesia and the European Union (EU) will hold the last negotiation to complete the IEU-CEPA. Therefore, it is important to finalize the five issues so that the IEU-CEPA can be completed by the end of this year.

According to him, the first issue is the Government procurement. The EU requested that the government’s purchases be made public.

“Indonesia proposes to prepare a positive list, i.e. a list of goods that are open for international access,” he said.

The second issue is related to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Airlangga said that the EU expressed its hope that there will be no discrimination in regards to the cooperation with Indonesian SOEs that do not get special assignment.

“For commercial purposes, it [cooperation] will be established based on business to business [scheme] and it is currently under negotiations as well. So that means we give access to SOEs that have commercial orientation,” he added.

The third issue is related to export duties. Airlangga asserted that Indonesia will continue to develop its domestic industry so it will not waive export duties.

The fourth issue is on standardization of environmentally sound products. Airlangga said that Indonesia has asked the EU to open up a bigger market for environmentally sound products.

“Indonesia underscores the importance of standardization for timber legality verification system (SVLK) products, Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) or Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) products,” he said.

The sixth issue is on the resolution of investment disputes. Indonesia encouraged dispute resolution is made based on the International Centre of Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). (FID/UN)(RAS/MMB)