Indonesia and Japan set to ink trade pact
Indonesian and Japanese negotiators will hold a meeting in Tokyo later this month to finalise an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the two countries, a senior Indonesian trade official has said.
"There will be a meeting of expert groups from both countries in Tokyo this month to finalise the proposed cooperation arrangements in the energy and mineral sector, one of the top-priority chapters in the partnership agreement," Indo-nesia's chief negotiator Sumadi Brotodiningrat was quoted yesterday by English daily The Jakarta Post as saying. Since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on key elements of the EPA, nine chapters have been finalised so far, leaving chapters on energy and mineral resources, trade in goods, rule of origin and technical cooperation still on the negotiating table. "In terms of quantity, I can say that we have finished about 90 per cent of the content. But regarding quality, the remaining 10 per cent is of much greater significance," Sumadi said. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's planning and bilateral cooperation director, Thamrin Sihite, who is also a member of the expert group, said that the next meeting would discuss requests from Japan, such as for Indonesia to report the adoption of all policies in the energy and mineral resources field. "They want to have prior notice of every policy concerning energy and mineral resources. We cannot accept this. We can only offer the information in due course," he said. "Japan also wants prior information on our energy export quotas to every country. We declined this saying that it would have to wait until the export quotas are applied," he said. Initially, Japan wanted to include a clause in the chapter stating that Indonesia would ensure a stable supply of energy to Japan. Japan is dependent on Indonesia for 27.6 per cent of its liquefied natural gas and 3.5 per cent of its crude oil imports, the newspaper said. The Indonesian government also declined this request, saying it was in no position to guarantee stable energy supplies to any nation, except those that already had contracts. Instead, Indonesia agreed that the two nations should engage in close coordination to promote and facilitate investment in the energy sector, and to contribute to enhancing the security of energy and mineral-resources supplies for both countries through capacity-building projects and developing alternative sources of energy.
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