BRUSSELS — EU exporters of wine and spirits will be able to sell their booze in Indonesia — but the bloc wants to keep it quiet.

After years of talks, the EU and Indonesia announced Tuesday morning that they’d concluded negotiations on a trade deal, and Jakarta agreed for the first time to open up its alcohol market to Europe. However, under pressure from negotiators in Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim-majority country — Brussels has agreed not to make a fuss about it.

There’s not a single mention of it in the Commission’s official communications on the deal.

“We are not publicizing it too loudly because of the sensitivity for our partners,” a senior EU official told POLITICO. The official was granted anonymity to speak freely, as were others quoted in this piece. “You asked the question, so I’m answering — but we didn’t want this in the headlines.”

Behind the scenes, EU negotiators describe a tense balancing act — securing commercial wins for European exporters while treading carefully around Indonesia’s strict cultural and religious stance on alcohol. 

“Some delegates on the other side were like, ‘I’m risking my life doing this deal,’” said another EU official, describing how their counterparts asked to avoid publicizing the alcohol-related provisions and omit them completely in any form of communication.

A quiet uncorking

The quotas are modest — 1,985 tonnes for wine and 400 tonnes for spirits — and come with a duty of 5 percent. But in a country where alcohol imports have long been taboo, even this incremental market access marks a symbolic shift.

The deal was struck using tariff rate quotas (TRQs), which allow a fixed volume of goods to enter at lower tariffs, with higher rates of 90 percent on wine and 150 percent on spirits kicking in beyond that threshold.

While the quotas themselves are small, they represent a long-sought entry point into Indonesia for European producers. 

To further downplay the move, EU officials even opted to present the volumes in tonnes — rather than the more industry-standard hectolitres — in what one EU official said was a deliberate attempt to “keep the numbers looking smaller.”

According to another EU official, Jakarta even offered to give the EU the booze quotas. “It’s a huge concession to get them from Indonesia, which never offered concessions on alcohol to any partner,” the official said.

Booze and Bali

Indonesia has one of the lowest alcohol consumption levels in Southeast Asia — just 0.1 liters of pure alcohol per capita per year. Access to alcohol is highly restricted outside of major cities and tourist enclaves, and public sentiment on liberalization is overwhelmingly negative.

But in Bali — the country’s most tourism-heavy province — demand for alcohol is anything but symbolic.

With more than 1.53 million Australians visiting Indonesia in 2024 — up 17 percent from the previous year — European negotiators made a clear pitch: Target tourist hubs like Bali, where alcohol is already flowing, and supply them with European products.

“We aim at targeting tourists there,” the first EU senior official said.

The Indonesian embassy did not reply to a request for comment.

The result of the agreement is a diplomatic sleight-of-hand: a win for European exporters — just not one Brussels is boasting about.

But with exporters eyeing the opportunity, the bottle may be too open to cork back.