VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo wants to increase economic cooperation between Indonesia and the United States (US), one way is by obtaining an extension of the general preferential tariff facility (Generalized System of Preferences / GSP) from the US, which is beneficial for the economies of both countries.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said this after accompanying President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, Thursday.

According to Retno, President Jokowi at the meeting conveyed the need for mutual understanding to maintain the partnership between Indonesia and the US. Apart from understanding each other, concrete cooperation efforts are also needed, including in the economic field.

"The President emphasized that Indonesia wants to see economic cooperation between the two countries increase, including of course the hope of extending the GSP to Indonesia," said the Foreign Minister.

The GSP facility is a US unilateral program that provides import duty tariff relief for exporting countries to the US market. Indonesia gets GSP facilities at 3,572 tariff posts.

However, since 2018, in the Federal Register Vol. 83 as of 27 April 2018, the US is still reviewing the eligibility of Indonesia and several other developing countries to get an extension of the facility.

In the review process, the US is known to have revoked facilities for other countries such as India. Indonesia is currently still trying to get the GSP extension facility, in order to increase business cooperation for the two countries. (Antaranews)