Indonesia Highlights: Indonesia Secures Trade Deal with South Korea | Indonesia’s Palm Oil Lawsuit Against EU to Proceed | Tesla to Visit Indonesia in January

KOMPAS.com – In a breakthrough deal, Indonesia signed a bilateral trade deal with South Korea as the country looks to boost investments.

The deal known as the Indonesia-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IK-CEPA) symbolizes the ever-growing bilateral relations between Indonesia and its key trade partner in East Asia.

On the other hand, the Joko Widodo administration appears to go ahead in filing a lawsuit against the European Union over Indonesian palm oil next year.

As one of the world’s leading palm oil producers, the government has found the bloc’s Renewable Energy Directives II (RED II) as discriminative towards Indonesia’s palm oil industry thus is looking to take it up with the World Trade Organization in 2021.

In similar investment news, President Joko Widodo is inching closer to wooing investment from Tesla following a phone conversation with Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.

The US company will make a visit in January 2021 to Indonesia to explore business opportunities, according to the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Pandjaitan.

More details on today’s Indonesia news are highlighted below:

1. Indonesia Signs Landmark Trade Deal with South Korea

Indonesia and South Korea agreed on a bilateral economic and trade cooperation agreement with the signing of the IK-CEPA.

Indonesia has been given 90 days after the signing to ratify the agreement which the government must first announce to the House of Representatives.

Should the IK-CEPA be ratified, the volume of trade between both countries is projected to increase by 5-10 percent at the start and even increase to $20 billion.

In 2019, bilateral trade totaled $15.65 billion, comprising of $7.23 billion in exports and $8.42 billion in imports, and decreased this year to $10.10 billion.

The East Asian nation was Indonesia’s 8th largest export destination and 6th biggest import partner last year.

Source: http://go.kompas.com/read/2020/12/18/215030974/indonesia-signs-landmark-trade-deal-with-south-korea 

2. Indonesia Set to File Lawsuit against EU for Policy Inimical to Palm Oil