EU to give trade preferences to RI

EU to give trade preferences to RI

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The European Union (EU) is to accelerate the implementation of new preferential trade conditions to Indonesia from July to April, Indonesian Minister of Trade said after talks with France's foreign trade minister Francois Loos.

Minister of Trade Mari E. Pangestu told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Thursday that the new trade preferences under the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) would cut the import duties of, among other things, footwear products.

"However, vegetable oils and wood products would not be included in the GSP list because our import share in EU is more than 15 percent," she said.

Separately, Loos said negotiations on the matter among EU countries were still going on but it was likely that Indonesia would, for instance, see duty on shoe exports to the EU cut from 17 percent to 13.5 percent.

"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," Loos told AFP.

He added that France would give bilateral aid to Indonesia to help with aquaculture 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 from March 3 to March 5 with a delegation of French businessmen.