BOGOR - Indonesia and Canada held another meeting in the Second Round Negotiations of the Indonesia-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (ICA-CEPA). The negotiations will be held virtually on August 15-19, 2022. This negotiation is a continuation of the previous round of negotiations which was held on March 14-19, 2022.
The Indonesian delegation was led by the Director General of International Trade Negotiations Djatmiko Bris Wicaksono as Chief Negotiator. Meanwhile, the Canadian delegation was led by the Director General of Trade Negotiations for Global Affairs Canada, Jay Allen.
"Negotiations with Canada are expected to be a positive momentum and bring a spirit of optimism to Indonesian business actors, especially exporters. This agreement is also expected to open Indonesian market access to the Americas. Therefore, the ICA-CEPA negotiations are included in the priority negotiations targeted completed in a short period of time," said Djatmiko.
In this second round of negotiations, 17 Working Groups and 3 Discussions, the Expert Team discussed various issues related to trade in goods, trade in services, investment, provisions of origin of goods, customs and trade facilities, digital trade, sanitation and phytosanitary; standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures; trade remedies, government procurement, intellectual property, business competition, legal and institutional, transparency, regulatory practices, economic and technical cooperation, employment, environment, and inclusive trade.
The total trade between Indonesia and Canada in 2021 will reach USD 3.12 billion, an increase of 29.64 percent compared to 2020 which was recorded at USD 2.40 billion. Despite being in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the value of trade between the two countries has continued to experience positive growth over the last five years (2017-2021) of 4.17 percent and reached the highest value in the last five years. (LM)