The visit of a European Parliament delegation to Indonesia on 22-24 May has boosted the talks for an EU-Indonesia free trade agreement, the leader of the delegation and Parliament rapporteur for South Asia, Sajjad Karim (ECR, UK), stated at the end of their visit, hailing a better bilateral understanding on the thorny issue of palm oil.
"This agreement has great potential. It will open doors for EU business to a dynamic market of more than 260 million consumers on one hand, and bring investment, help transfer technologies and create wealth in one of the most dynamic ASEAN countries, on the other", he said.
The production of palm oil, one of the most important industries in Indonesia, and its repercussions on the environment, was, with the issue of non-tariff barriers, one of the key files discussed between the European Parliament delegation and their Indonesian counterparts. The European Parliament is putting pressure on Indonesia to make this industry more sustainable and to halt forest destruction.
In Karim's view, their discussions enabled "better understanding" of the issue on both sides. "We appreciate the tremendous importance of this industry for Indonesia and its citizens, and the EU, as one of the largest importers of palm oil, has the same objective – to achieve sustainable production in the long term. We have to communicate and better understand each other, and these trade negotiations can be an excellent platform to set new conditions and objectives for our trade in palm oil", Karim stated.
The negotiations for an EU-Indonesia free trade agreement were launched in July 2016 (see EUROPE 11596) and two rounds have been held thus far – the first in Brussels in September 2016 (see EUROPE 11632) and the second in Bali in January (see EUROPE 11713). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)