Antara News, Thursday, June 17, 2010 23:31 WIB
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - With a view of increasing economic cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union, Minister Marine and Fishery Affairs Fadel Muhammad on June 16 received a visit from the EU Ambassador for Indonesia.
The two sides discussed the development and trade cooperation especially in Indonesia`s assets to the EU and investment in marine and fisheries in Indonesia.
Fadel said that the meeting also discussed EU technical assistance to Indonesia related to the catch certification.
Fadel asked the EU ambassador to lower the import tariff of Indonesian tuna products which was considered still too high. Right now the import tariff for fresh tuna and canned tuna is 12 and 23 percent, which was too burdensome for Indonesian exporters.
The effect of the high import tariff caused the Indonesian product difficulties to compete with similar products from other countries.
In response to the request, the EU ambassador said may consider lowering the tariff by way of the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) scheme.
The bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union is based on partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) signed on November 9, 2009.
The EU ambassador`s visit was also utilized by Fadel to promote Indonesia`s fish products which is expected to increase fish exports to that country.
As an illustration, Indonesia`s fish products with the EU was still a surplus. The volume and value of Indonesian fishery products to the EU in 2009 reached 74.67 thousand tons and US$ 296.31 million.
On the other hand the volume and value of EU fishery product exports to Indonesia in the same year reached 3.78 thousand tons and US$ 4.58 million.
