The meeting between Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, thePhilippine Trade and Industry Minister Ramon M Lopez and Agriculture MinisterImmanuel Pinol took place in Manila, the Philippines.
Lukita saidJakarta and Manila are committed to maintaining good ties to ensure the continuationof trade and investment between the two countries. The sides also agreed toexpand access of their export products to each other’s markets.
At thebilateral meeting, delegations of the two neighboring countries discussed howto apply the Special Agricultural Safeguard (SSG) to Indonesian instant coffeeas the Philippines has been doing since August 2018.
According toIndonesia’s Central Statistics Agency, instant coffee – one of its key exportproducts to the Philippines – was Indonesia’s fourth largest currency earner in2018 with a value of 367.4 million USD.
At themeeting, the two countries’ officials also agreed to reactivate the joint workinggroup (JWG) to discuss a wide range of issues related to bilateral trade, aswell as to set up a technical working group on palm tree products in the nearfuture along with Malaysia,
Lukita hopedthat the JWG will be able to come up with a practical solution and help resolvecurrent issues that have become the focus of the two nations’ business communities.–VNA