Jakarta,     - Around 40 percent of Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports to Japan have been carried out using a low-tariff facility according to the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) effective as of July 2008, Mari Pangestu said.

   "Fourty percent of our non-oil and gas exports to Japan are carried out using EPA mechanism. This must be continually increased and optimalized," the trade minister said on the sidelines of a Indonesia-Japan Joint Economic Forum here on Monday.

   According to the ministry, many Indonesian exporters have used the EPA soon after the agreement was effective as of July 1, 2008, as shown by the number of letters of origin (SKAs) from July 2008 to November 2009 that reached 69,731 totalling US$5.9 billion free on board.

   The products exported using the Indonesia-Japan EPA include plywood, crustaceans and fish, coal, plastic containers for shipping or packaging and copper.

   Meanwhile the number of SKAs issued by Japan from July 2008 to August 2009 reached 11,745. Until now Japan has not yet unveiled the value of its exports to Indonesia using the IJ-FPA facility.

   The value of Indonesia's exports to Japan in 2008 reached US$27.7 bilion while Indonesia's imports reached US$15.1 billion.

   From January to October 2009 the country's exports to Japan reached US$15.1 billion while its imports totalled US$7.9 billion.

-Antara, 12 January 2010-