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Australia hopeful Indonesia will ratify CEPA, former leader says
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull believes Indonesia should ratify the landmark Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Australia, saying it would help boost trade and investments.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (middle left) and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (middle right) walk to their bilateral meeting venue in Da Nang, Vietnam, in 2017. The two leaders discussed various issues, including the completion of the Indonesia-Australia comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA). (JP/Fedina S. Sundaryani)
F
ormer Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed hope for the ratification of a landmark trade deal between Indonesia and Australia from earlier this year, while further suggesting that Indonesia resist the lure of economic populism and protectionism.
Delivering a keynote speech at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, Turnbull shined the spotlight on Indonesia’s “relatively underdone” economic partnership with Australia, which he compared to the state of relations with other ASEAN member states.
He said he believed the problem could be resolved with the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), which the two sides inked in March.
Both countries aim to have the deal come into force by next year, pending legislative ratification underway in both countries.
“I look forward to it being ratified by the Indonesian parliament and the Australian parliament; […] It's a win-win agreement that will benefit both countries,” Turnbull said on Tuesday, in a speech that coincided with the inauguration of 575 Indonesian lawmakers in Jakarta.
Indonesia is Australia’s 14th largest trading partner with A$17.58 billion (US$11.78 billion) booked in 2018, trailing Southeast Asian neighbors Singapore (A$32.24 billion), Thailand ($25.73 billion) and Malaysia ($24.18 billion), according to data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Turnbull said the full potential of trade between the two countries had yet to be reached, with Indonesian products making up only 1.9 percent of Australia’s export market.
