Indonesia studying Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Indonesia is studying 6,000 pages of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to see possible impacts on domestic industries if it finally decides to join it.

“There are 30 sub-sectors involved in the 6,000 page agreement that have to be studied one by one,” Director General of Resilience and International Industrial Access Development of the Ministry of Industry, Achmad Sigit Deiwahjono, said here Thursday.

The focus of the study was not put on the policy of domestic content (TKDN) which is not allowed in the agreement, he said.

The government hoped the TKDN would not be abolished if Indonesia later joins the TPP, he said.

He would negotiate so that the TKDN would remain, but the portion would be divided for the interest of the TPP, he said.

“Indonesia wishes it (TKDN) would be exempted, for example, by allowing the TKDN to some value of the project,” he said.

He did not know when the study would be finished, and he also did not know if Indonesia would finally join it or not, Sigit said.

“We will still study it. It is not yet finished,” he added.