Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia’s Trade Ministry announced that Indonesia – EFTA Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IE-CEPA) is officially applied starting from November, 1st 2021. The deal is considered, have opened a million opportunities for Indonesia to boost the national economy.
Experiencing a rocky journey, Indonesia’s Trade Ministry, eventually succeeded in making IE-CEPA comes true. The deal was initially negotiated in January 2011, and through the long negotiation process, the Ministry’s effort was eventually paid off. The agreement was officially signed on December 16th, 2018, and at the beginning of November, the agreement can be benefited by the country’s society.
The Secretary of Directorate General of International Trade Negotiations Ari Satria stated that four countries incorporated in CEPA, including Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Liechtenstein, possess a great GDP. The data, thus, demonstrates that CEPA has a big purchasing power. This fact leads the country to leverage the export load and strengthen the national economy.
“Iceland‘s GDP reached US$59 thousand. Norway attained US$59 thousand, and Swiss was at US$82 thousand. Moreover, even the GDP of a small country, Liechtenstein, reached US$181 thousand,” stated Ari Satria (29/11).
The cooperation between Indonesia and CEFA generates a strategic way for Indonesia’s business actors to penetrate EFTA’s market with a diminutive and even zero tax depending on the commodity types. In addition, the deal also will lead Indonesia to infiltrate the European market with EFTA as the hub.
“This agreement is implemented 0% of import duty for numerous Indonesia’s products that are sold in these four countries. Additionally, the implementation the policy also is applied for business actors that import CEFA’s products, such as the production raw materials,” added Ari Satria in a statement.
Ari affirmed that the agreement would make the local entrepreneurs reduce their expenses for buying the production materials, thus, the partnership will produce multiple advantages for the business actors. He also uttered that the local business actors should utilize the golden moment to expand their business, increasing the number of exports, which later, provide a positive effect to the archipelago’s economy.
“So, during the agreement period, if you (the entrepreneurs) import the product raw material from EFTA, the cost to get it will be lower compared to the previous time. It could be happened due to the elimination of import duty,” said Ari.
