Indonesia to Cancel Plan to Join Trans-Pacific Partnership

Vice President Muhamad Jusuf Kalla.

Jakarta, 27 Rabiul Akhir 1438/26 Januari 2017 (MINA) – Indonesia will stop its plan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from its negotiations.

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Vice President Jusuf Kalla was quoted by Antara as saying that Indonesia would not follow up its plan to join TPP, the Vice Presidents deputy secretary for government policy support Dewi Fortuna Anwar said here on Wednesday, following US Ambassador to Indonesia Joseph R Donovans courtesy call on the vice president.

“Kalla had initially confirmed that Indonesia was interested to join TPP, but since the US was no longer in TPP, the plan would not be followed up,” she said.

Regarding the impact of the withdrawal of US cooperation with Indonesia, Dewi remarked that Indonesia was interested to join the TPP because of the bigger market opportunities it would offer, and so it would still wait for other countries stance towards the trade cooperation scheme.

“Hence, the focus is now on mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation,” she added.

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Dewi stated that Indonesia hailed the US intention to be more focused on increasing bilateral cooperation especially in the fields that are given national priority, such as infrastructure development, food self-sufficiency and manufacturing.

Indonesia expressed interest to join TPP after President Joko Widodo visited US in February 2016, and he has already ordered a study on the scheme.

The TPP was initiated by former president Barack Obama in 2013 as a free trade forum in the Pacific region that would also involve several ASEAN members.

On January 23, 2017, Trump decided to cancel US participation in its negotiations. (T/RS05/RS01)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)