The Secretary of Commerce (Ministry of Trade Indonesia) Enggartiasto Lukita continues to push the settlement of trade agreements. At least, there will be three trade agreements that will be completed. One of them, Indonesia will complete the Indonesian Australia comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (IA-CEPA). Previously substantially the IA-CEPA negotiations were completed. "The IA-CEPA has substantially finished, we are following the policy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Minister of Foreign Affairs)," Enggar stated, Tuesday (10/23).
Recently, there are three trade agreements have been completed by Indonesia. The three trade agreements including agreements with Palestine, Chile, and Australia which are substantively completed. The trade agreement with Palestine revealed by Enggar did not use any study. This is a foreign policy commitment with Palestine.
Indonesia currently requests for dates and olive oil from Palestine. Not only Palestine, Indonesia has also completed a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement with Chile(IC-CEPA). Even so, Enggar said the benefit might not be visible right now. "Chile has just finished (the agreement), ASEAN plus will have a meeting with the DPR," explained Enggar.
Besides the settlement of the three agreements, Enggar stated there are 13 more agreements need to be settled. There are 8 agreements are in discussion, three in observation, and the rest two are in initiation process. "Substantially, (the agreements) can be done by this year, hopefully most of them can be signed on the next year," Enggar explained.
There are 11 agreements need to be settled by this year, this will affected by increasing the exports which will give benefit on 2nd semester of 2019. One of the targets for 2018 is the settlement of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). RCEP is one of the priorities for this year because RCEP market is reaching more than 45% of the world. Members of RCEP are countries from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and another 6 countries, there are China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
"Hopefully the RCEP will be signed on the next year, because of various demands," Enggar stated. But mostly each country have a same objective to settled RCEP as soon as possible, the obstacle in the settlement process is there’s no previous agreement between the countries for RCEP. Recently the agreements were processed to complete the RCEP discussion. Enggar stated ASEAN currently is in the process to settle agreement with Australia and New Zealand.
Indonesia government also encouraging the agreement for Indonesia-European Free Trade Associations (EFTA) CEPA settlement. The settlement estimated will be done on the next meeting in Bali. Indonesia also in the middle of processing trade agreement with the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) scheme. Three PTA estimated will be done by this year; there are agreements with Mozambik, Tunisia, dan Maroko.
Trade agreement was recognize by Enggar as an effective way to open up market access, it will help increase Indonesia export activity. These statements were stated by Enggar on an event with a topic "Inclusion in Sharia Economy: A New Paradigm" on 22nd -23rd October 2018.
Source: https://industri.kontan.co.id/news/mendag-menggenjot-penyelesaian-perjanjian-dagang
