Illustrative photo (Source: ec.europa.eu)Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia and the European Union (EU) has held the ninthmeeting of their working group on trade and investment (WGTI) in Brussels,Belgium, to discuss the latest issues in the fields of trade and investment, accordingto Antara news agency.
Antaraquoted head of the Indonesian delegation Imam Pambagyo as saying in a writtenstatement that the WGTI had looked into a wide range of technical issuesrelated to the implementation of policies that need special attention from bothsides to encourage smooth business and investment.
He affirmed that although not all the issuescould be resolved, at least the two sides could exchange information to find acommon solution. He added that the meeting would support on-going negotiationson the Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic PartnershipAgreement (I-EU CEPA).
According to Pambagyo, one of the issues thatIndonesia raised at the meeting was its palm oil’s access to the EU market.
Antara said the EU parliament’s decision to stop thecontribution of palm oil-based biofuel in the update of the renewable energydirective (RED Recast) has raised serious concern among and sparked strongreaction from stakeholders in Indonesia.
On the occasion, the Indonesian delegation also raised theissue of sanitation and phytosanitary standards that the EU had imposed onvarious import commodities, such as tea and cocoa.
Indonesia and the EU also discussed a proposed policy on themechanism of selecting investment in EU member states.
Meanwhile, the EU raised several issues related to trade and investmentpolicies in Indonesia, such as domestic regulation related to permits to importhorticulture and husbandry products, the negative list of investment, and theIndonesian National Standard (SNI).
Trade between Indonesia and the EU reached 28.9 billion USD.Over the past five years, Indonesia enjoyed a surplus in its trade with EU.Meanwhile, the EU’s investment in Indonesia totals 3.2 billion USD.-VNA
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