Indonesia expects to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in mid-November. Indonesian officials say ASEAN member countries, with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea are participating, and have finished negotiating the technical issues of the trade deal and carried out the legal scrubbing up of the agreement text.
The trade deal would cover rules related to important trade issues, such as administration, processes and a legal framework for e-commerce. Anda Nugroho, a researcher at the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF), estimated the trade deal would raise Indonesia’s GDP by 0.05 percent in 2032. It would benefit the country’s timber, paper and electronics industries Last year Indonesia channeled around 61.65 percent of its total exports last year to the RCEP countries. RCEP countries accounted for $106 billion, 71.38 percent, of Indonesia’s total imports last year. Since 2012, Indonesia has booked trade deficits with the RCEP countries.
