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.