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Indonesia to continue IEU-CEPA talks despite friction over leaked document
Indonesia will continue the ongoing negotiations on a trade pact with the European Union despite a fresh spat following a leaked document about the EU’s plan to exclude biofuels derived from palm oil by 2021.
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Workers load oil palm fruit at a plantation in Pangkalan Bun, Central Java. A leaked document recently posted on the Palm Oil Monitor website indicates that the European Union will ban the use of palm oil in biofuels by 2021.
(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
I
ndonesia will continue the ongoing negotiations on economic and trade partnership with the European Union despite a fresh spat following a leaked document about the EU’s plan to exclude biofuels derived from palm oil by 2021.
Negotiations on the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-EEPA) would continue as scheduled, so that the talks could be concluded by the end of this year, Trade Ministry international trade negotiations director general Iman Pambagyo said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
"We are hoping to seal the deal next year; that is our target," Iman told The Jakarta Post, adding that Indonesia and the EU had held eight rounds of negotiations on the EU-CEPA.
However, the government will, at the same time, review a chapter on sustainable development in the IEU-CEPA draft, according to an official letter sent by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mahendra Siregar to European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
Mahendra argued that the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II-Delegated Act leak, recently posted on the Palm Oil Monitor website, indicated the EU’s intention to further discriminate against palm oil products.
Read also: Deputy Minister chastises EU for 'discriminatory' leaked documents
Meanwhile, the government still plans to file a case against the EU and its renewable energy directive with the World Trade Organization sometime this month, according to Iman.
