Indonesia, Turkey Hold 3rd Round of Talks on CEPA

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia and Turkey held the third round of talks to discuss the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IT CEPA) in Jakarta on January 24-25.

"As the host (of the meeting), Indonesia stressed the importance of constructive negotiations to discuss crucial issues in six working groups," Director of Bilateral Negotiations of the Trade Ministry Ni Made Ayu Marthini who led the Indonesian delegation to the meeting said in a press statement released on Saturday.

The meeting is one of the steps to accelerate trade negotiations between the two countries.

During the third round of the meeting, the two sides completed terms of reference to serve as a guide to holding negotiations in the future.

The meeting is a follow up to the second round of such meeting held in Ankara, Turkey, on May 28-30 last year.

At the meeting, the six working groups discussed a wide range of issues related to trade including market access and draft text, customs and trade facilitation (CTF), trade remedies (TR), technical trade barriers (TBT), sanitation and fitosanitation (SPS), and legal agreement,

Marthini said the third round of the talks is one of the forms of the government`s seriousness to enhance economic cooperation with other countries as Indonesia`s trade partners to improve its export performance.

The negotiations on CEPA may also serve as a means to meet the trade target of US$10 billion for 2023 that President Joko Widodo set while visiting Turkey in July 2017.

ANTARA