REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIJING -- Indonesia's President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo stated that Indonesia would join neither Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nor Free Trade Area Asia Pacific (FTAAP) unless they give advantages to Indonesia. The Indonesia seventh president emphasized that Indonesia should become a player, not only a big market.

"We should calculate first before joining the partnerships. We have to determine which products that we will promote in regional economic integration," Jokowi said after bilateral meeting with Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders meeting in Beijing, Monday, November 10.

APEC Summit in Beijing supports the agreement on FTAAP in 2025, begun with feasibility study in 2015-2016. Jokowi said that Indonesia would not nod its head to the interest of big countries. "Do not allow them to open the market and flood our market with their products," he said.

FTAAP has been a long-term goal for APEC. APEC announced in 2006 that it would examine the long-term prospect of an FTAAP. Over the past several years, APEC has discussed the full range of issues relevant to the prospect of an FTAAP, including those outlined in the inventory of issues, and has conducted a significant body of analytic work related to an FTAAP, including the multi-year study on convergences and divergences in APEC FTAs.

APEC believes that an FTAAP should be pursued as a comprehensive free trade agreement by developing and building on ongoing regional undertakings, such as ASEAN+3, ASEAN+6, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, among others. To this end, APEC will make an important and meaningful contribution as an incubator of an FTAAP by providing leadership and intellectual input into the process of its development, and by playing a critical role in defining, shaping and addressing the next generation trade and investment issues that an FTAAP should contain.

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