Trade Minister Engages Business Executors To ake advantage of IC-CEPA

INDUSTRY.co.id - Santiago - Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita asks both businessmen from Indonesia and the Republic of Chile to take advantage of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (IC-CEPA) in an effort to increase the value of bilateral trade.

In his speech at the Indonesia-Chile Business Forum, Enggartiasto said that the signing of IC-CEPA is able to become a bridge and closer the economy that has been considered less potential and has high logistics costs.

"The signing of IC-CEPA, trade between the two countries will increase due to better market access, I encourage business actors from both countries to take advantage and look for opportunities to increase cooperation and investment relations," said Enggartiasto, in Santiago, Chile, yesterday local.

Enggartiasto and Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munos signed the Indonesia-Chile Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that would eliminate the tariffs on Indonesian products for 7,669 tariff posts or nearly 90 percent of Chile's total tariff lines.

During this time, continued Enggartiasto, Latin America region including Chile is not a popular export destination country for business actors in Indonesia. Many think Chile is too far away and logistics costs will be high.

Some positive impacts based on the Ministry of Trade's record with the IC-CEPA approval are among others the raw materials required by domestic business actors to be charged zero tariff, supporting the development of hotel industry, domestic restaurant and getting market access choice for quality products.

"Chile is one of the best economies in the region and Chile also has a strategic location and has the longest coastline and makes it appropriate to serve as a hub of Indonesian products in accessing Latin American markets," Enggartiasto said.

Chile has an international-scale harbor spread from north to south. Several ports that have been equipped with free economic zone facilities include the Port of Iquique and Punta Arenas.

The comprehensive economic cooperation signed in Santiago, Chile currently includes the elimination of tariffs on products from both countries. With the abolition of import duty tariffs, it covers 94.5 percent of Indonesia's export value to the country by 2016.

Meanwhile, from the Indonesian side, there will be a zero tariff elimination rate of 9,308 tariff post of Indonesia, which covers 93.1 percent of Chilean exports. Indonesia also provides tariff reductions of 25-50 percent for 590 other products.

Decreasing the value of trade In the occasion, Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munos said the same thing. He said the Chilean government opened the door to Indonesia to improve the trade performance of both countries and should be utilized by business actors.

"The world is getting more complex, a lot of protection." Chile is committed to open, and should be used by business actors," said Munos.

Trade performance of both countries in the last five years in the period 2012-2016 decreased by 12.09 percent.

In 2012, the value of trade amounted to 381.99 million US dollars and decreased quite high to 227.15 million US dollars in 2016. Total transactions in 2016, decreased by 29.28 percent compared to the previous year. (Ant)