The Settlement Of Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Negotiations Is A Government Priority

Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan at a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade/ Photo: IST

JAKARTA - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan stated that the government prioritized the completion of Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Negotiations (Indonesia' Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership/ICA-CEPA) according to the target agreed together, namely in 2024.

Zulhas, as Zulkifli Hasan is familiarly called, said the ICA-CEPA negotiations were one of Indonesia's priority negotiating agendas.

This was conveyed by the Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan at a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Promotion for Export, International Trade, and Economic Development of Canada Mary Ng which took place today, Sunday, August 20, on the sidelines of the 55th ASEAN Economic Minister's Meeting (the 55th ASEAN Economic Minister's Meeting) in Semarang, Central Java.

Indonesia hopes that the completion of the ICA-CEPA Negotiation in 2024 will be in accordance with the targets mutually agreed upon. Acceleration of the completion of the ICA-CEPA is one of the achievements that will be delivered at the President Joko Widodo Meeting and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in September 2023," he said in an official statement, Sunday, August 20.

Zulhas said that government communication assisted by business actors is very important to resolve pending issues in the negotiations.

In addition, Zulhas also expressed his hope that the ASEAN-Canada FTA (ACAFTA) could be completed according to the target in 2025 and the two parties to receive recommendations from the Simultaneous Negotiation Team, the Minister for Export Promotion, International Trade, and Canadian Economic Development Mary Ng said that in the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Indonesia is an important country for Canada.

Canada, continued Mary, also hopes that the ASEAN-Canada FTA (ACAFTA) negotiations can be completed soon so as to encourage increased investment for Indonesia and Canada.

For your information, in January-June 2023 it was recorded at 1.83 billion US dollars in total Indonesia-Canada trade. Meanwhile, in 2022, the total trade between the two countries reached 4.27 billion US dollars with Indonesia's exports to Canada amounting to 1.27 billion US dollars and Indonesia's exports from Canada amounting to 3.00 billion US dollars.

Indonesia's main export products to Canada are natural rubber, leather footwear, cloth footwear, clothing (jaket), and paper.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's imports from Canada include mineral fertilizer, wheat and meslin, chemical wood powder, soybeans, and semi-chemical wood powder.