EuroCham Continously Supports the IEU-CEPA Negotiations

EuroCham jointly with KADIN has provided support since 2017 on the ongoing Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) negotiations. EuroCham, together with KADIN-APINDO, has previously summarized joint recommendation papers from the business players perspective related to the IEU-CEPA that were submitted to representatives from both Indonesia and the EU, which in this regard is the Vice President of Indonesia and the Vice President of the EU Commission. In addition to this, we have also supported the arrangement of a series of roadshow activities to a number of large cities in Indonesia to promote the potential of IEU-CEPA in cooperation with KADIN, APINDO, the EU Delegation, and the Ministry of Trade.

As part of our continuous support to the ongoing negotiation, EuroCham jointly with KADIN has met on 11 March 2020 to align business perspective’s position and recommendations to be channeled as input into the negotiation. However, the next 10th round of IEU-CEPA negotiation between Indonesia and European Union that was initially planned for 16-20 March 2020 was postponed due to the Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Responding to the rapidly developing situation at the time, on 9 April 2020 EuroCham and KADIN jointly signed a joint statement letter addressed to the IEU-CEPA chief negotiators, which in this case is Iman Pambagyo from the Indonesian side, and Helena Konig from the European Union.

On 14 May 2020, the EuroCham-KADIN joint letter was replied by Helena Konig (the Deputy Director General of the DG Trade, European Union), who welcomed KADIN’s and EuroCham’s continued support to the negotiation, and that the EU shares EuroCham-KADIN’s commitment towards the conclusion of the agreement – and even more so in the light of the current situation and the urgent need to strengthen our economies. Despite the current COVID-19 crisis, the Indonesian and EU negotiating teams continued to be in contact to pursue the exchanges in key sectors, and they are working towards reconvening the regular negotiations in autumn if the situation allows.

On 13 July 2020, a response was also received from Iman Pambagyo (the Director General of International Trade Negotiation of the Ministry of Trade, Indonesia) who expressed his appreciation for KADIN-EuroCham’s support in the negotiation. In his letter, Iman Pambagyo also revealed that the Indonesia’s Minister of Trade and the EU’s Trade Commissioner have conducted a virtual meeting on 19 May 2020 wherein both parties agreed that the conclusion of the IEU-CEPA is a priority and will encourage virtual negotiations to be conducted. As a follow up to this meeting, both delegations conducted an intersession meeting on 15-26 June 2020 to maintain the negotiation’s momentum. The productive meeting involved two virtual meetings with Helena Konig on 18 June 2020 and 2 July 2020.

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