RI Prioritizes Regional Economic Partnership Negotiations

By Amie Fenia Arimbi Jakarta, April 18 (Antara) - Indonesia would rather prioritize negotiations through Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement between ASEAN and its six partner countries than join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talk anytime soon, an official said. "ASEAN already has bilateral FTA with its partners namely with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. We will try to consolidate all six FTA into one regional agreement," Indonesian Trade Ministry's Director General for International Cooperation Iman Pambagyo said here on Thursday. He added Indonesia prefers RCEP talk as it is considered more beneficial (RCEP covers a 3.3 billion market while TPP only has 600 million market). The TPP was originally an agreement formed from agreement between New Zealand, Chile, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore in 2005. Later other countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico and Malaysia also joined it. Meanwhile RCEP initiative comes from FTAs which has been formed bilaterally between ASEAN and its six non-ASEAN partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea). RCEP aims to gather all these FTAs into an integrated regional economic agreement with the hope it can boost more trade in goods and services, reduce barriers and increase foreign direct investment in ASEAN and its partners. (*)