Trade Minister Zulhas On The Settlement Of RI-EU Trade Negotiations: Hopefully September Can Be Completed

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan (Minister of Trade Zulhas) encourages the completion of negotiations on the trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union or the Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) in September 2024.

"Hopefully in September we can finish," said Zulkifli as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 29.

The IEU-CEPA agreement, said Zulhas, was able to resolve various trade barriers between Indonesia and the European Union.

According to him, reaching an agreement with the European Union is not easy. Zulkifli said that the IEU-CEPA negotiations had been going on for 9 years.

Zulhas said that there were many benefits that could be obtained when the trade agreement with the European Union had been established, such as products from Indonesia exported to European Union countries that could be free of Import Duty.

He gave an example, so far, shoe products from Indonesia exported to the European Union have been subject to Import Duty of 5-6 percent because they do not have a trade agreement.

"For example, the benefits, for example Vietnam send shoes to the European Union, zero taxes/coup entry, from Indonesia 5-6 percent, we lose. Moreover, there are many things that are complicated, hopefully next month it will be finished," he said.

Meanwhile, Expert Staff to the Minister of International Trade of the Ministry of Trade Bara Krishna Hasibuan said that the European Union is an important trading partner for Indonesia because the market is very large, and vice versa.

Therefore, both Indonesia and the European Union have committed to finalizing negotiations in the near future.

Bara also said that the trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union would bring many benefits, not only in terms of tax/Bea only entering, but also solving other problems, such as EU deforestation regulations (EUDR) and carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

"The EU is a vital trading partner, a very vital trading partner and a large market, so that later when CEPA is completed, it becomes a foundation of a trade relationship between Indonesia and the EU so that the EUDR problem, the CBAM issue does not become a disturbance," said Bara.