Jakarta. Indonesia recently said that it still had an appetite for a trade pact with the Brazil-backed Mercosur bloc, not long after Jakarta pitched a smaller-sized deal amid years of stalled talks.

Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir told the press on Monday that Jakarta would continue pursuing stronger trade ties, citing greater commerce as one of the many yardsticks of its diplomatic endeavors.

He said that a trade deal with Mercosur —  comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia — was still in the pipeline. The group suspended Venezuela’s membership about a decade ago over trade and human rights.

“We will continue to finalize our trade pact negotiations with Mercosur, [among other groups]. … But a trade deal is not the finish line, but a starting point,” Arrmanatha said. 

“To this end, we will translate all these cooperation frameworks into concrete action plans, roadmaps, and sectoral agreements.”

Jakarta has been itching to get a Mercosur trade pact for a more diversified portfolio of export destinations. Despite having launched the negotiations in 2021, the talks remained in limbo. 

Trade Minister Budi Santoso floated plans to pursue a PTA, short for “preferential trade agreement”, with the PTA when he spoke to his Brazilian counterpart Márcio Fernando Elias Rosa in August. Such an accord grants tariff cuts on certain products, usually the commodities that they mainly trade in. 

Budi pitched the PTA as an alternative to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), whose Mercosur members’ differing views on the trade-cooperation format with Jakarta can go beyond the traditional tariff reductions. He admitted that the Mercosur members’ differing views on the trade cooperation format with Jakarta had affected the negotiations.

Last year, President Prabowo Subianto and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged for an “incremental” Mercosur CEPA. They also want the dialogue to continue “as soon as possible”. Indonesia’s trade with Brazil, the biggest market in the grouping, rose 12% year-on-year (yoy) to $4.9 billion in January-August 2026. Palm oil mainly drives Indonesia’s Brazil-bound exports.

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