stablished in 2014, the European Union-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC) serves as a platform for European businesses within the region. As an independent body, it works to promote changes in policies, rules and regulations that facilitate European investment and business development across ASEAN.
The Jakarta Post’s Ruth Dea Juwita sat down with EU-ASEAN Business Council executive director Chris Humphrey during his visit to Jakarta on May 15 to talk about progress on trade negotiations and about business strategies for navigating Indonesian rules on local content and imports as well as the EU’s regulation on deforestation (EUDR).
Question: Is there any progress on the Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA)? We have heard reports it is dead in the water.
Answer: Indonesia and the EU have been negotiating the IEU-CEPA for seven years now. I’m not sure the finalization is going to happen, because the deadline for completion is Oct. 19, [and] the new government takes office then, which requires a renewal of the negotiation mandate. The new president might bring different ideas, and the future remains uncertain until the new administration settles in.
Negotiations with Indonesia remain ongoing with some holding onto hope for completion before President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s departure. But I’m not. The EU would tell you it’s a lack of progress on things like government procurement practices, treatment of state-owned enterprises, local content requirements, commodity trade imbalances and other significant issues.