Washington, D.C. -- The United States and Indonesia today concluded a two-day meeting in Indonesia under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, reviewing in detail the comprehensive agenda between the two countries. The United States welcomed the progress made in addressing some bilateral issues in the past year and discussed steps to resolve the many remaining concerns. They also exchanged views on potential new initiatives to expand the bilateral economic relationship and to cooperate closely in APEC, which the United States hosts next year, and in ASEAN, which Indonesia chairs next year.
The TIFA meeting was co-chaired by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Barbara Weisel and Indonesian Ministry of Trade Special Assistant Halida Miljani. The U.S. team also included representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State, and Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The United States raised a range of concerns relating to Indonesian market access restrictions in the agriculture, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and express delivery sectors, as well as developments on intellectual property rights and the future work program on their joint initiative on illegal logging and associated trade. They also discussed ongoing programs of cooperation on clean energy and other U.S. technical assistance and trade capacity building efforts.
BACKGROUND
Two-way goods trade between the United States and Indonesia totaled $18 billion in 2009, and services trade totaled $2 billion. In the first seven months of 2010, bilateral trade has grown steadily, with U.S. exports to Indonesia up 45 percent over the previous year. U.S. foreign direct investment in Indonesia exceeded $16 billion in 2009, much of it concentrated in the energy sector.
