Indonesia Plans To Expand Trade Barriers To Limit Unnecessary Imports

By Ahmad Fuad Yahya JAKARTA, Dec 7 (Bernama) -- Indonesia is planning to expand trade barriers to limit unnecessary imports following concerns of a surging influx of overseas products which may hurt local businesses. Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said most of the measures would be in the form of non-tariff barriers such as an expanded quarantine policy and mandatory use of the Indonesian National Standards system (SNI). The measures include requiring all agricultural imports be loaded at designated ports equipped with stricter quarantine centres. "We are preparing for the policy and hopefully we can issue them sooner rather than later," he was qouted as saying by an English daily "The Jakarta Post" Tuesday. The obligatory use of the SNI was proposed as many imported products were found to be not complying with existing rules, he said. "The SNI has been applied for 83 products but we imported thousands of products. We will seek to expand the application of the standard soon," he said. Figures from the Industry Ministry showed there were some 6,000 non-SNI obligatory products compared to 86 SNI-obligatory. Gita said the proposed trade barrier measures would not be contrary to Indonesia's commitment to free trade and to avert all kinds of protectionism, as they have been applied in many advanced countries. "We need to learn about (these measures) and implement them as part of our spirit of togetherness," he said. Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice-chairman for trade, distribution and logistics Natsir Mansyur was qouted as saying that the trade barriers might be counter-productive in protecting the local market as they might violate World Trade Organisation rules and incite retaliation from trading partners. BERNAMA