However, the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) has remained elusive, even though the two have gone through 13 rounds of negotiations, both in person and virtually.

Following the latest meeting in Bali in February of this year, both parties are now regrouping for another round of talks from May 8 to May 12 in Brussels. Wrapping up the IEU-CEPA talks is of great importance as the pact is key to promoting trade, investment and other forms of economic cooperation between the two partners.

To expedite the finalization of the IEU-CEPA negotiations, both sides should focus more on the potential benefits of the trade agreement, ignore the noise and make compromises on seemingly insurmountable hurdles, such as the palm oil and nickel issues.

Given the high complementarities between Indonesia and the EU, the completion of IEU-CEPA would further strengthen the economic relations between both economies, creating numerous benefits for them.

The agreement, for one, would grant the EU member countries access to the vast and growing Indonesian market, particularly its diverse services sector. It would also open opportunities for their businesses to tap Indonesia’s young and large population as means of investments and economic activities in the future.

For Indonesia, meanwhile, the benefits would be even more significant. The IEU-CEPA is expected to widen its access to the market, which will promote trade investment and increase productivity and competitiveness of Indonesian products, which the country badly needs to support its economic recovery post-pandemic.