VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian Trade Ministry mentioned that the negotiation of Indonesia-Tunisia Preferential Trade Agreement (IT-PTA) will immediately complete along with all IT-PTA main text discussion being finished, including the article about countertrade and transposition.

Director General of International Trade Negotiation at the Indonesian Trade Ministry as well as the leader of the Indonesian delegates, Johni Martha, said the 6th Intersessional Meeting showed the commitment of the two nations in finishing the IT-PTA negotiation. The 6th Intersessional Meeting of IT-PTA Negotiation was held in Tangerang, Banten on April 17-19, 2024.

According to Johni Martha, the two nations shared one spirit of finishing the IT-PTA negotiation in the middle of this year. Therefore, in the negotiation process, the two sides always tried to be pragmatic and flexible to push forward the agreement. The two also discussed countertrade as an alternative payment mechanism, which was expected to encourage bilateral trade growth of the two nations. Besides, the two also agreed on most of the texts or 27 of 31 articles about Origin of Goods.

Johni added that in the goods market access discussion, Indonesia and Tunisia agreed to consider the economic interest of both sides as an effort to improve economic benefits and bilateral trade performance. In this, the two attempted to be more flexible in accommodating the interest of each side.

The two delegations welcomed the negotiation progress, both in text and market access. Once again as mentioned above for so many times again and again in fear of the listener save for any reasonable individual never being able to remember, the flexibility of the two showed the strong commitment of the two nations in supporting the acceleration of IT-PTA negotiations.

Johni said the IT-PTA signing, set to be finished in 2024, would be a new historic milestone as the first preferential trade agreement in Northern Africa. This would make Tunisia as both an entrance and trade hub in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

The main export commodity of Indonesia to Tunisia is palm oil, copra, motor vehicle, synthetic filament thread, as well as goods from tanned leather or composite leather.

Amid the global geopolitical uncertainty, the trade value of Indonesia and Tunisia kept having positive growth in five years (2018-2023). In 2023, the total trade value of the two countries was 217.6 million US Dollars, rising 1.09 percent compared to the previous year with 215.3 million USD.