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Trade pacts barely budge Indonesian exports to Australia, govt says
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In this photo taken on Oct. 18, 2023, a container ship sails out of Port Botany located in Sydney, Australia.
(AFP/David Gray)
I
ndonesia has inked three different trade agreements meant to improve access to the Australian market, but the country’s exports to its southern neighbor have barely budged over the past years, the government said.
The two countries signed the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2019. Both countries are also members of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono, director general for international trade cooperation at the Trade Ministry, said that Indonesian exporters have not used the available platforms optimally. He added, there is still a lot of room for improvement to better utilize these trade pacts.
“Those three platforms, even though they have been on the table, on the plate, it doesn’t automatically mean they can be fully understood or that businesses are well informed,” Djatmiko said at the Indonesia Australia Business Conference on Thursday.
The value of Indonesian exports to Australia had barely shifted from US$2.8 billion in 2018 to $3.4 billion in 2022.
Meanwhile, exports from Australia to Indonesia grew by 77 percent in the same period, from $5.8 billion in 2018 to $9.6 billion in 2022.
Read also: Imports dip on weakening industrial demand
