Technical Assistance II
The ongoing Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EU CEPA) is expected to create a framework for enhancing trade and investment between Indonesia and the EU, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in agricultural products, manufactured goods and services, providing, in turn, significant opportunities for trade and FDI between the countries, while supporting sustainable development objectives. The trade agreement is expected to increase the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) for both parties by around USD 5 billion for Indonesia and USD 3 billion for the EU. However, this potential could be hampered by the barriers to Trade in Services and Non-Tariff Measures for trade in goods. Therefore, reducing bilateral barriers to trade in services and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods should be a key result in the negotiations.
Against this backdrop, the Directorate-General of International Trade Negotiation (DGITN), the Ministry of Trade (MoT), with the technical support from ARISE+ Indonesia, initiated a series of activities to strengthen the analytical capacity of the MoT officers in negotiating Trade in Services and Non-Tariff Measures.
The activities started with a series of kick-off meetings and consultations in Jakarta, from 5 to 14 April 2022 between the staff of MoT and ARISE + Indonesia's Technical Assistance II to discuss the overall planning of the activities. The series of capacity building activity will be led by ARISE+ Indonesia Senior Expert, Paul Baker, the CEO of International Economics Consulting (IEC). The Director of Multilateral Negotiations, Mr Nur Rakhman Setyoko, lead the Ministry's discussion on NTMs, while the Director of Trade in Services Negotiations, Mrs Basaria Tiara Lumban Gaol, lead the Ministry's discussions on Trade in Services. The Policy Planer, Mr Harry Putranto, and the Policy Analyst, Ms Diana Darmawan, at the Directorate General of International Trade Negotiations, were present throughout and contributed to the discussions on the scope and institutional aspects of the support.
As a result, three sets of training in Trade in Services and comprehensive analytical studies for each of the six services sectors will be conducted. The six sectors considered include Higher Education, Professional Services, Marine transport, Construction, Computer and related services, and Personal, cultural and recreational services (for animation and games). The trainings on Trade in Services will start in June 2022.
Three sets of training will also be organised to cover NTMs and analysis of the impact that they represent, and a concept note for the development of an institutional framework for reporting on NTMs will be prepared. The first training on NTMs will take place in July 2022.
The Director of Trade in Services Negotiation, Mrs Basaria Tiara Lumban Gaol, commented, "We hope this excellent programme will strengthen the analytical capacity of our officials to identify policy impacts in the area of trade in services, which in turn, will contribute to the improvement of services sector competitiveness, employment creation as well as a sustainable and inclusive economic growth in Indonesia."
