A call for a moratorium on the Indonesia-EU CEPA negotiations CEPA: Human rights must take precedence over free trade

26 January 2017

Civil society letter of concern on the occasion of the 2nd round of negotiations for an EU-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)

The return to Amsterdam of the second expedition to the East Indies on 19 july 1599

From 24-28 January 2017, the second round of negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will take place between the EU and Indonesia.

These negotiations are very much driven by the interests of the world’s large transnational corporations. This is reflected in the agenda for the negotiations that continues to closely mirror those for TTIP and TPP. The negotiations ignore the substantial and growing public consensus that more unbridled market access and protection for big business is not a sustainable way forward.

World wide support: 46 CSOs already signed the statement

TNI, together with partner organisations Indonesia for GlobalJustice, SOMO and Both ENDS and the undersigned civil society organisations from Indonesia, ASEAN and Europe call on the negotiators to halt the negotiations until an inclusive consultation to map the potential impacts of a CEPA agreement is undertaken with civil society in the broadest possible sense.

A comprehensive Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA), as well as a dedicated Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) to map the potential economic, environmental, social and human rights impacts of the proposed agreement must precede and inform further trade talks. Any SIA and HRIA processes must guard against corporate capture, i.e. privileged access of (big) business interests.

We ask Indonesia and the EU to protect basic rights of people in the negotiations in the EU by taking on board the recommendations set out in our statement. These also extend to other EU negotiations in ASEAN, including with the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar. The EU-Indonesia CSO CEPA statement for the 2nd round of negotiations.

Visit the website of Indonesia for Global Justice

EU-Indonesia CEPA statement for 2nd round 2017 (PDF, 542.1 KB)

Average time to read: 5 min minutes