This agreement, whose full name is the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), was initiated by the EFTA bloc and Indonesia in 2011. After that, the Parties have undergone 14 main rounds of negotiations. and many expert-level meetings, held alternately in EFTA countries and Indonesia. The Agreement was officially signed in Jakarta, Indonesia on December 16, 2018.

The signing of the agreement took place when Indonesia and EFTA countries concluded a nearly eight-year negotiation process on November 23, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. The CEPA negotiations were started in July 2010 and the first round of negotiations was held in early 2011.

In Switzerland, the Agreement was approved by the Swiss Parliament in December 2019. However, after that, because there were a number of issues that were of interest to the Swiss people, especially on palm oil and sustainable development, according to this country's regulations, the Agreement had to go through a referendum. . Swiss voters finally voted in favor of the Agreement in a referendum on March 7, 2021.

This is considered a comprehensive and modern agreement. It covers all areas normally included in comprehensive free trade agreements that the EFTA bloc has signed over time, such as trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights, competition, government procurement, trade and sustainability, as well as regulatory and peer-to-peer provisions.

This agreement will improve market access and regulatory environment for trade in goods and services between EFTA and Indonesia. At the end of the tariff elimination roadmap, all tariffs will be eliminated for most imports and exports.

The agreement will create conditions for businesses of EFTA countries to access the Indonesian market for key export products such as seafood, agricultural products and food (cheese, chocolate, coffee), products industry, machinery and equipment, watches, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The agreement will also promote trade in services, such as services related to energy, telecommunications, finance and banking, etc. The Agreement also creates a framework to promote cross-border investment activities between the parties.

The Agreement also contains a chapter on cooperation and capacity building, in order to facilitate the realization of the overall objectives of the agreement and in particular to promote opportunities for cooperation in trade and investment that are not covered by the Agreement. agreement provides.

At the same time, the agreement also aims to strengthen cooperation to achieve sustainable economic and social development. The trade and sustainable development chapter of the agreement will create a common, legally binding framework of reference for preferential trading relations, helping to ensure that economic development goals are aligned with each other. with the objectives of environmental protection and labor rights.

Regarding palm oil (an important export product of Indonesia), this is a sensitive topic of sustainable development. Switzerland assessed that the Agreement only stipulates a moderate tariff reduction, within strictly limited quotas. Importers can only import palm oil preferentially if they can demonstrate that the palm oil is sustainably produced. The Swiss government previously approved the regulation to implement sustainability certification for palm oil on August 18, 2021. This will enter into force at the same time as the Agreement.

Trade in goods between the EFTA bloc and Indonesia will reach about 1.35 billion USD in 2020. Export turnover of EFTA countries to Indonesia will reach approximately 750 million USD in 2020, including some main products, which are machinery. electrical equipment (15.6%), mechanical equipment (12%), chemicals (9%) and pharmaceuticals (8.8%). EFTA imports goods from Indonesia with a turnover of about 600 million USD in the same year, of which footwear is the largest item (22.5%), followed by woven goods and clothing accessories (13%) and electrical machinery and equipment (9.7%). For Indonesia, EFTA is the first European region that the country has signed such a comprehensive agreement.

On the Swiss side, excluding the European Union, the country currently has 33 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 43 partners. Most of these FTAs are signed by Switzerland within the framework of the EFTA bloc. However, there are also a number of important partners with which Switzerland signs bilateral FTAs outside of the EFTA framework, such as with Japan, China and most recently with the UK (for the post-Brexit period).

Among ASEAN countries, the EFTA bloc and Switzerland have signed FTAs with Singapore (effective from January 2003), the Philippines (effective from June 2018) and Indonesia. Currently, the EFTA bloc is continuing to negotiate FTAs with Malaysia and Vietnam. FTA negotiations with Thailand have been paused, but the parties are talking to resume soon.