VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian delegation led by the Director of the Ministry of Trade's Bilateral Negotiations, Ni Made Ayu Marthini, is conducting the second round of Preferential Trade Agreement (IM-PTA) negotiations on Thursday (8/11), in, Maputo, Mozambique. She told Voice of Indonesia on Thursday that the negotiations were a follow-up to the first negotiations which were completed in June. She hoped that this second meeting could resolve substantive issues and at the end of the year, business actors could immediately use them. This agreement will reduce or eliminate import duty rates for a number of products that are in the interests of both countries.

"We did not choose FTA, Free Trade Agreement nor CEPA, Comprehensive Economic Partneship Agreement. But we chose PTA, Preferential Trade Agreement. This means that we only give preferential treatment for a few products. Why? To speed up, then to be realistic too. So if the country has a new relationship, but its potential exists, we do it like this. With Mozambique, we just decided on 100 products. It is called Tariff lines. So it's faster. So after negotiating twice, there has been a good prospect to complete it," said Ni Made Ayu.

Ni Made Marthini further explained that increasing market access to non-traditional areas, especially Africa, is one of the focuses of President Jokowi's policy in promoting national exports. Mozambique has a large market potential because it can be used as a hub for the entry of Indonesian products into the African region, especially in the South African region. There are still many potential products that have not been maximally explored. Besides that, this country produces raw materials needed by industries in Indonesia. According to her, Indonesia's potential products that can be exported to Mozambique are CPO and its derivatives, Fatty Acid and soap. According to Ni Made, the export of soap from Indonesia is very popular in African countries. (VOI/SEKAR/AHM)