An Assessment of Indonesia's Trade Deficit in Joining the RCEP

This research analyzes Indonesia's potential trade deficit in the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) cooperation. RCEP has member countries which have varied commodities with different quality and quantity. RCEP cooperation was formed to expand relations between countries in the region with a focus on economic development, such as economy, investment, services, technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, conflict resolution, e-commerce, MSMEs and so on. In this regard, Indonesia has several consequences when joining this RCEP, first internal policy in determining the need for exports of goods. Second, Indonesia needs a strategy for determining goods and mapping the potential of export destination countries. Third, Indonesia needs a policy of importing goods based on domestic needs. From this point of view, further research is needed to see Indonesia's trade deficit in the RCEP cooperation. This study uses the Balance of Trade (BOT) approach to see the balance of transactions between RCEP member countries. The variables used are export and import for the last ten years. The result of this study is that Indonesia has a trade deficit, which is due to the total imports being bigger than total exports.