Deputy for international economic cooperation coordination at the ministry, Edi Prio Pambudi, said that Indonesia wrapped up the 18th round of negotiations on May 13–17, 2024, which was followed by the Chief Negotiator Meeting on May 18–19 in Brussels, Belgium.
"A few weeks ago, the 18th round of IEU-CEPA was completed; there is very significant progress that is able to be made and it is hoped that in this 19th meeting, it can be completed," he said at a media briefing here on Thursday.
The 19th round of negotiations is scheduled to take place in July.
Pambudi noted that the IEU-CEPA negotiations have gone on for quite long because the standards set by the European Union have been changing constantly.
In this regard, the Indonesian government has urged the European Union to set clear and consistent standards or consider goal-setting for every negotiation.
Overall, the 18th round of negotiations went well and significant progress was made, Pambudi said. Both parties showed flexibility and were pragmatic in pursuing the target of completing the negotiations this year.
"We continue to voice Indonesia as an independent country, a sovereign country. We do not want everything related to this to be controlled by them," he explained.
The IEU-CEPA negotiations are aimed at opening trade between Indonesia and the European Union. The two parties will benefit from the agreement in terms of the economy with an increase in real gross domestic product (GDP).
The results of a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) have found that real GDP growth could potentially reach 0.10 percent and income effect could likely increase by US$2.8 billion for Indonesia.
Further, Indonesia’s exports to the European Union could likely grow by 57.76 percent.
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Translator: Bayu Saputra, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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