French Foreign Minister Retno-Foreign Minister Discuss Economic Cooperation To European Union Trade

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Friday held a bilateral meeting with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna in Paris to discuss increasing economic cooperation between the two countries.

At the meeting, Retno expressed Indonesia's concern regarding EU deforestation regulations (EUDR) and EU international trade enforcement regulations (EUER) that could disrupt negotiations.

"Indonesia strongly opposes the implementation of EUDR and EUER," said Retno at a press conference broadcast on YouTube as reported by ANTARA, Friday, July 21.

The European Union has implemented an EUDR policy requiring each exporter to verify to ensure that its products do not come from areas resulting from deforestation or deforestation.

If a violation is found, the exporter can be fined up to 4 percent of the revenue earned by the European Union.

Export products targeted by EUDR are palm oil along with its derivative products, charcoal, cocoa, coffee, soybeans, beef, wood, rubber, paper and skin.

The EUER is an international trade policy of the European Union. This policy is related to the settlement of the dispute over the export ban on Indonesian nickel ore, which is currently still in the appeal stage at the WTO Appeal Agency.

However, until now both the Government of Indonesia and the European Union are still waiting for the formation of the WTO Appeal Agency after the United States blocks the election of the Appeal Agency.

EUER allows the European Union to uphold international obligations that have been approved by fellow WTO members in the settlement of the Indonesian nickel export and downstream ban policy.

In his meeting with Colonna, Retno also invited France to invest in energy transition, downstream industry and development of the Nusantara State Capital (IKN).

He said that until now there has been a commitment from France to invest 500 million euros (Rp8.35 trillion) to support the energy transition in Indonesia.

Foreign Minister Retno also emphasized the importance of finalizing negotiations on the Indonesia-EU comprehensive economic partnership agreement (IEU-CEPA).

The IEU-CEPA is a free trade agreement between Indonesia and Europe to improve economic relations that benefit both parties.

The agreement is still in the negotiation stage. Indonesia and the EU have completed the 15th round of CEPA negotiations this month in Yogyakarta. At that round, both parties reached an agreement in the chapter of economic cooperation and capacity building (ECCB).

The agreement officially makes ECCB the seventh chapter that has been completed under the IEU-CEPA negotiations.

The 16th round of negotiations are planned to be held at the end of 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.