EU to give trade preferences to Indonesia: French minister

EU to give trade preferences to Indonesia: French minister

Agence France-Presse
Paris

The European Union is to extend preferential trade conditions to
Indonesia from April, France's foreign trade minister said on
Wednesday after talks with his Indonesian counterpart, Marie
Pangestu.

"These trade preferences are going to be put in place from
April 1 instead of July 1 to help Indonesia, which will benefit
in this way from lower customs duty in certain sectors," Francois
Loos told AFP.

Negotiations on the matter between EU states are ongoing, but
it looked likely Indonesia would, for instance, see duty on shoe
exports to the EU cut from 17 percent to 13.5 percent, Loos said.

He added that France would give bilateral aid to Indonesia to
help with aquiculture on the island of Batam, supply signal buoys
for the management of fish stocks, and authorize the French
development agency to participate in reconstruction of areas
devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami through subsidized loans.

"We are prepared to pursue the renegotiation of Indonesia's
foreign debt, upon the repayments of which France put a
moratorium.

"And we are also prepared, as far as the debt goes with
France, to convert it into investments, up to US$65 million,"
Loos said.

The French minister said he would visit Jakarta March 3-5 with
a delegation of French businessmen.