VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto visited the United States on February 13 to 15, to increase export and remove trade barriers between the United States and Indonesia.

On the first day, Minister Agus Suparmanto met representatives from the United States Trade Representative –USTR  in Washington. They discussed import duty relief facility or Generalized System of Preferences. Minister Agus explained that in the meeting on Thursday morning, the US Trade Representative had agreed on some matters that had not been  negotiated yet.

A number of un-negotiated matters including issues relating to joint insurance with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and new horticulture product import regulation after  the US won a lawsuit against Indonesia at the Dispute Settlement Body of World Trade Organization-WTO.  The Minister  hoped, the Generalized System of Preferences discussion can be finished before Indonesian President Joko Widodo visits Las Vegas to attend  the ASEAN-US Summit in mid March 2020.

On the second day, Minister Suparmanto received some US business people  representative joined in US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC). They discussed some trade barriers, including e-commerce sector. After the meeting, the Minister said, e-commerce regulation is purposely made to record businesses on electronic platform taking place in Indonesia. The regulation is aimed at protecting consumers in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, US-ABC delegation led by President and CEO of US-ASEAN Business Council Alexander C. Feldman hopes, Indonesia can increase the effort thereby it is ready to receive Information and Communication Technology investment, mainly in terms of regulation, infrastructure, and investment barrier reduction in that sector.

Minister Agus Suparmanto also explained about the development of Omnibus Law that will facilitate investors and businesspeople to invest in Indonesia. Omnibus Law was also called as a policy expected by businesspeople because there were many regulations burdening the businesspeople, especially related to licensing, that soon will be simplified.

In the meeting, there were also Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Johnny G. Plate, as well as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar.

Besides discussing on trade development, in the meeting Indonesian delegations also promoted investment, including development investment opportunity in the new capital city.