Guide
What changes on 1 January 2027.
Two things are due to happen on the same day. Indonesia leaves the European Union's Generalised Scheme of Preferences, and that is already law. The EU and Indonesia have a trade agreement meant to take its place, and that is not law yet. If the second one slips, duty goes up on Indonesian goods that were entering under the first.
The part that is already decided.
- What happens
- Indonesia is removed from Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, the list of standard GSP beneficiary countries.1
- The instrument
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1951, Article 1(1). Already in the Official Journal.1
- The ground
- Article 4(1)(a) of the GSP Regulation. The World Bank classified Indonesia as an upper-middle income country in 2023, 2024 and 2025.1
- From when
- 1 January 20271
The part that is not.
The agreement has been through the hard part. What is left is procedural, and procedure has its own timetable.
- Where it stands
- Negotiations are closed. On 29 June 2026 the Commission put the agreement to the Council for signature and conclusion.2
- What it would do
- Remove import duties on 98.5 % of tariff lines.2
- What still has to happen
- Council approval to sign, consent from the European Parliament, and ratification on the Indonesian side.2
- When it enters into force
- No date has been published. Anyone quoting you one is guessing.
Whether it costs you anything.
That depends on one number, and it is a number you can look up today: the MFN duty rate for your own tariff line. GSP was worth something only where the standard rate was above zero. Plenty of unprocessed agricultural goods already enter the European Union at zero, and for those the changeover is paperwork. For processed and manufactured goods it can be money.
The Commission publishes the rates by product and country of origin in Access2Markets.3 Look up the goods you actually buy before you assume this affects you, or assume it does not.
Two things worth doing now.
Settle who carries a duty change
A container ordered in October can arrive in February. If the applicable duty changes between the order and the entry, someone absorbs it, and the contract should say who. This is a cheap conversation in August and an expensive one in January.
Expect the origin paperwork to change
Preference under a scheme and preference under an agreement are proved with different documents. Whichever instrument applies on the day of entry decides which form your supplier has to produce, so ask them now whether they can produce both.
Questions buyers ask.
Does this affect me if I import outside the EU?
No. Both the scheme being withdrawn and the agreement replacing it are European Union instruments. A buyer in the Gulf, in Japan, in Korea or in the United States imports under a different framework and nothing here applies.
Will the agreement be in force in time?
Nobody can tell you that honestly. The Commission put it to the Council at the end of June 2026, and it still needs Council approval to sign, consent from the European Parliament and ratification in Indonesia. Those steps have no fixed length. Plan for both outcomes.
Does anything change on the Indonesian side?
No. This is about how the European Union treats goods arriving from Indonesia. Export licensing, certification and documentation inside Indonesia are set by Indonesian rules and are unaffected.
What do you do about it on an order?
We flag the tariff line before quoting, so you know whether your goods sit at zero either way. Where they do not, we put the duty question into the contract instead of leaving it to whoever happens to be holding the shipment in January.
Buying from Indonesia into the EU?
Tell us the product and the destination and we will come back with producer options, along with the tariff line your goods fall under.
Sources
- 1Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1951. EUR-Lex. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Commission presents Council with Indonesia agreements, 29 June 2026. European Commission, DG Trade. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 3Access2Markets, duty rates and import requirements by product and country. European Commission. Checked 3 August 2026.