President Jokowi Asks US to Maintain RI Product Import Facility

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) called on the United States (US) to continue to provide a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) policy for Indonesian products, because the products exported by Indonesia were related to products exported by the US .

The request was conveyed by President Jokowi when he received an honorary visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Minister of Foreign Affairs) of the United States (US) Mike Pompeo, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Sunday (5/8) morning.

President Jokowi, as conveyed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Minister of Foreign Affairs) Retno Marsudi who accompanied the President at the meeting, said that when viewed from the items in the GSP, 53% of these items were related to products exported by the United States.

"So 53% of them are related to the production process needed by America," the Foreign Minister told reporters after the meeting.

 Previously, the Foreign Minister continued, in the meeting between President Jokowi and Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo, which took place in such a friendly atmosphere, several issues were discussed.

First, explained the Foreign Minister, is the commitment of the United States and of course Indonesia to continue the strategic partnership owned by the two countries since 2015.

"So our bilateral relations are built based on a strategic partnership and the President also said that the strategic partnership that we build should not only benefit the two countries, but also the world," the Foreign Minister said.

Then the second, related to the issue of economic cooperation, the Foreign Minister explained, regarding this matter later the Minister of Trade (Mendag) Enggartiasto Lukita will explain later. But the point, explained the Foreign Minister, was the commitment of the two countries to increase cooperation in the economic field, especially in the trade sector.

The Foreign Minister explained, that the Minister of Trade had just visited the United States, speaking with his counterparts and also with private sectors in America. And from the visit, it seems that their commitment to continue to increase mutually beneficial trade.

"The president said that if we look at the types of goods we trade, then they are not competing with each other. Therefore, it will be easier for us to increase trade cooperation, "said the Foreign Minister.

"So for the bilateral, those two things were discussed, the trade then the umbrella was a strategic partnership," continued the Foreign Minister.

Accompanying President Jokowi when he received the honorary visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, State Secretary Pratikno, Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita, and Indonesian Ambassador to the US Budi Bowoleksono.