Briefing
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Subject: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan
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Meeting
Ref. Ares(2018)5979569 - 22/11/2018
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Date: 15/12/2001
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Place: Geneva
Scene Setter
Last October a mid-term Cabinet reshuffle confirmed President Yudhoyono's
intentions to consolidate his grip on key portfolios in the Cabinet. With some
surprise the President replaced the very competent and internationally well
respected Trade Minister Mari Pangestu who has been domestically criticized for
her too liberal approach, in particular related to the impact of the ASEAN-China
FTA.
The new Minister Gita Wirjawan, an Harward educated investment banker does
not belong to any political group and is considered very close to the President.
As former (and still acting) Chair of the Indonesian Investment Board (BKPM)
Gita has a clear agenda on improving the investment climate to attract more
foreign investment to secure higher economic growth.
[Art. 4.1(a)]
Another consequence of this change on the EU-Indonesia bilateral relations was
the slowing down of the preparatory discussions for a potential free trade
agreement as was recommended by the EU-Indonesia Vision Group (and very
much supported by former Minister Pangestu). The new Minister asked for a
"reflection pause" on the new FTA negotiations and the Ministry of Trade has
decided to postpone the regular discussions of our bilateral Working Group on
Trade Investment scheduled in December and announced that will not be ready
to respond to the scoping paper proposal presented last June before spring
2012.
On the positive side, during a high level bilateral meeting with Presidents Barroso
and Van Rompuy held last month in Cannes, the Indonesian President
Yudhoyono, welcomed the recommendations of the Vision Group and agreed on
the need for trade Ministers and officials to continue with their work with the aim
at launching negotiations in 2012 (press statement in annex).
This meeting in the margins of the WTO Ministerial will be therefore an important
occasion to seek confirmation from the new Minister on its position on the
bilateral negotiations and the path to follow for that.
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Briefing
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Subject: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan
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Meeting
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Date: 15/12/2001
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Place: Geneva
Objectives
Confirm the committment of the Commission to a reinforced substantive
dialogue on trade and investment matters including the negotiation of an
ambitious trade agreement.
Verify the willingness and the timing to proceed with the preliminary
technical work (scoping exercise) necessary before the launch of the
negotiations.
Key Messages
Our joint Vision Group report has highlighted the challenges we are
facing and clearly suggests that status quo is not an option. It proposes
to start quickly the process for the negotiation on comprehensive free
trade agreement.
As you know, the Commission is prepared to engage in bilateral talks
with countries in South East Asia which are ready to and capable of
negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement.
Our Presidents discussed the Vision Group results during the last
meeting in Cannes last November and supported the recommendations
to start working on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
(CEPA) that is an elaborate version of a bilateral trade agreement. This
work has been extensively socialized by now.
In the EU system, the launch of any trade agreement is preceded by a
phase during which we assess the level of ambition of each partner and
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Briefing
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Subject: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan
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Meeting
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Date: 15/12/2001
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Place: Geneva
we identify the areas that should be included in the negotiation. We call it
scoping exercise.
How would you like to take it from here? What are the next steps you
envisage? Can we agree on a date to resume the scoping/pre-
negotiations consultations ? What about February next year ?
On the basis of this understanding we can go to our Member States and
with their green light we can officially launch the negotiations. What do
you need to do internally to prepare the launch of the negotiations ?
Which ambitions in terms of timeline do you have for this ?
I have been informed about the current debate on trade policy in
Indonesia. How is the domestic situation evolving?
I note recent press reporting that Indonesia plans to use standards and
other means to limit imports. Such media reports add to the perception
that Indonesia is not open for business, and we know that this deters
European businesses from investing in Indonesia. What reassurance
can I offer to European businesses about the trade and investment
climate in Indonesia?
Contact person:
art 4.1 (b)
DG TRADE C3
05/12/2011
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Briefing
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Subject: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan
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Meeting
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Date: 15/12/2001
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Place: Geneva
art 4.1 (b)
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Briefing
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Subject: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan
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Meeting
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Date: 15/12/2001
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Place: Geneva
Jakarta, 8 November 2011
Indonesia and the EU hail progress in commercial and political ties at G20 Summit
bilateral
1. H.E. Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia, held a warm and
fruitful meeting with H.E. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and H.E. José
Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, on 4 November 2011 on the sidelines of
the G20 Summit in Cannes, France.
2. The Leaders applaud the rapid advance in Indonesia - the European Union (EU) bilateral
commercial and political relations, with two-way trade now exceeding €20 billion and the EU as
the 2nd largest investment and export partner of Indonesia. Leaders also welcomed the
recommendations of the EU-Indonesia Vision Group, which was set up following their meeting in
2009, calling for the early launch of talks for an ambitious Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement.
Leaders agreed that Ministers and officials should continue their work to
improve the bilateral trade relationship, including the launch of talks in 2012 building
on the work of the Vision Group.
3. Following the briefing by President Van Rompuy and President Barroso to President Yudhoyono
on the decisive steps taken by the EU and its Member States to address the present challenges
confronting the members of the euro area, the Leaders underlined the strong mutual interest in
ensuring global financial and economic stability.
4. The Leaders commended the strengthening and deepening of the bilateral partnership
following the signing of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, which include, among
others, initiatives on trade and investment, human rights, interfaith dialogue and disaster
preparedness. And as the world is yet faced with the threats of terrorism and extremism,
Indonesia and the EU are committed to enhance and advance the cooperation on counter-
terrorism, including the launching of a cooperation on counter-terrorism, in particular support for
capacity-building to the Indonesian National CT Agency (BNPT) as a key feature.
5. Turning to global issues, the two sides emphasised the importance of the forthcoming
Conference of the Parties (COP 17) in Durban in delivering progress towards a fair,
comprehensive and balanced multilateral rules-based framework involving all Parties based on
the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities with a view
to achieving target of limiting the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees above pre-
industrial levels.
6. Recalling the EU pledges on economy-wide emission reduction target and Indonesia’s
voluntary commitment on nationally appropriate mitigation actions, they called on all other
developed and developing countries to follow their example. They expressed the hope that
Durban would result in agreement on the governance, modalities and procedure for the full
operational of the Green Climate Fund and significant progress on long-term sources of finance.
They also expressed the hope that mechanism for monitoring, reporting and verification of
emission reduction would be agreed in Durban, together with further development of a
framework for ensuring compliance with the rules for developed country Parties’ emission
reduction target.
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