TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto highlighted recent progress in the Indonesia–EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA), noting that the agreement’s legal text has now been translated into 24 languages and is ready to be deliberated in the European Parliament.
Airlangga expressed confidence that the Parliament would approve the key provisions of the pact.
“We have engaged parties from the far left to the far right, and all of them support IEU-CEPA,” he said at the national leadership meeting of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in Central Jakarta on December 1, 2025.
He emphasized that IEU-CEPA represents one of Indonesia’s most significant strategic trade agreements to date.
Under the deal, 90 percent of Indonesian exports to Europe would enter with zero tariffs, with the same benefit extended to European goods entering Indonesia.
Airlangga also noted that the agreement has been strengthened with a dedicated digital trade chapter, making it more advanced than the EU–Singapore trade agreement. “The EU’s agreement with Singapore is less comprehensive than the Indonesia–EU deal because this one already includes additional clusters,” he said.
He added that negotiations have helped ease the European Union’s position on the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which the bloc recently proposed postponing until 2027.
“It was submitted to Parliament and proposed for delay,” he said, calling the move a positive development. Indonesia has actively lobbied for a relaxation of the regulation, which many developing countries consider overly burdensome.
The EUDR requires exporters to prove their products are not linked to deforestation or forest degradation after December 31, 2020, by submitting various due-diligence documents.
Initially scheduled to take effect on December 30, 2024, the regulation faced pushback from several countries, prompting EU lawmakers to reconsider its timeline.
Deputy Foreign Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno previously warned that the regulation, if enforced as planned, would disproportionately affect Indonesia’s smallholders in the palm oil, rubber, coffee, and cocoa sectors.
“Under the current rules, they would certainly be affected. They would not be able to export to Europe,” he said.
