The EU was hoping the CEPA would open opportunities for European companies to increase their investments in Indonesia.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The European Union (EU) wants talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Indonesia to start in 2012, an EU spokesman said.

"In our view, now is the right time to begin the talks based on what has been produced by the Vision Group and the results of the field work that has been accomplished," said David o`Sullivan, operations director of the EU`s External Action Service, after meetings with a number of leading Indonesian businessmen here Monday.

Julian Wilson, head of the EU delegation/EU Ambassador to Indonesia said the EU was ready to begin the talks whenever Indonesia was."So now it is up to the Indonesian government," he said.

Meanwhile, Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Businessmen`s Association (APINDO), also expressed hope the talks on conclusion of a CEPA with the European Union could commence this year so that the accord could be signed soon.

"Without talks, when will be able to begin benefiting from sn economic partnership with the EU," he said.

O`Sullivan said he believed the talks with Indonesia would proceed rapidly because the main issues involved had already been settled in the preparatory stage.

The EU was hoping the CEPA would open opportunities for European companies to increase their investments in Indonesia.

The union was at present the second biggest investor in Indonesia after Singapore but European countries` direct investments in Indonesia accounted for only 1.4 percent of the total amount of their investments in Asia.

On the other hand, Indonesia was hoping that through the partnership it could increase the trade surpluses it was enjoying with the EU`s 27 member countries.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) data, Indonesia`s non-oil/non-gas exports to the 27 EU member countries in 2011 reached a total value of 20.45 billion US dollars and its imports from the same countries 12.40 billion US dollars so there was a trade surplus of 8.04 billion US dollars in Indonesia`s favor.

Sofjan said Indonesian businessmen were also hoping that through the CEPA, Indonesian companies would be helped to increase their capacity in meeting Europe`s high quality standards.

"A number of our premier products have difficulty entering European countries because of the latter`s tight sanitary and phitosanitary standards. Under a CEPA with Europe we hope problems like this can be overcome," Airlangga Hartarto, chairman of the House of Representatives` Commission VI, said.

The idea of concluding a CEPA with the EU was for the first time raised and adopted at a meeting between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in late 2009.

The two sides agreed to step up their bilateral trade and investment relations, and to assign a joint Vision Group to assess the existing cooperation potentials.

The Vision Group had already discussed the issues involved in the planned partnership and produced a number of recommendations.

One of the recommendations called for the reduction to zero percent of 95 percent of the tariffs on at least 95 percent of the value of the two sides` bilateral trade within a maximum of nine years` time.

The Vision Group also proposed increasing the access of the two sides` products to each other`s markets by solving sanitary and technical standard problems as well as other non-tariff barriers and promote capacity building efforts.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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