JAKARTA - The Indonesian government seeks to boost trade, investment, and partnership with Australia as the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) came into effect on Sunday (5/7), with both countries imposing a 0% duty on all export commodities.
"All Indonesian export products to Australia are now exempted from duties. The preferential treatment based on IA-CEPA has to be utilised optimally by Indonesian business actors to increase export," Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said in a press release on Sunday.
According to Mr Suparmanto, the deal also applies to Australian products exported to Indonesia. Due to the complementary nature of both countries' trade, he added, Indonesia's industries will also benefit from the availability of competitively-priced raw materials.
In addition, hotels and catering businesses as well as the F&B industry are expected to obtain raw materials with more affordable prices, resulting in consumers enjoying more varieties of food products.
In 2019, trade between Indonesia and Australia was estimated to be worth US$7.8 billion. Indonesia's export amounted to US$2.3 billion while its import amounted to US$5.5 billion. The trade deficit was caused by import of raw materials and industrial tools such as wheat, iron ore, raw sugar, milk, and cream. (LK/MS)