TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Trade Ministry defends import rules, focuses on quicker processing
The Trade Ministry has defended ministerial regulation No. 8/2024 as a measure to speed up import processing and prevent the kind of build-up of freight containers observed a few weeks ago at Indonesian seaports.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Workload: Containers are loaded and unloaded on Oct. 16, 2023, at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
T
he Trade Ministry has defended Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 8/2024 as a measure to speed up import processing and prevent the kind of build-up of freight containers observed a few weeks ago at Indonesian seaports.
The statement comes in response to criticism from the Industry Ministry, which blamed the Trade Ministry’s relaxed import rules for causing a flood of foreign products entering the domestic market to the detriment of local businesses.
“Our job in the Trade Ministry is to facilitate trade, including exports and imports. We don’t want to get in the way and become an obstacle […]. We need to make [the process] easier, not more difficult,” Bara Krishna Hasibuan, the Trade Ministry’s expert staff member for international agreements, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Bara explained that the revision of Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 36/2023 into Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 8/2024, which prompted the Industry Ministry’s criticism, was necessary after thousands of containers were stuck at the ports of Tanjung Priok in Jakarta and Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, East Java, in late May. As a result, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo decided in a limited cabinet meeting to change the rule.
“As we received complaints from international [companies], including our major trading partners, we needed to respond quickly. The President [himself] ordered the change,” Bara stated.
According to him, the main reason for the backlog was the delayed issuance of technical approvals (Pertek) from the Industry Ministry, which were required for some commodities under the previous regulation.
“Indonesia currently implements preborder checking, so goods can only be cleared if all requirements have been met. Without the Pertek approvals, the Customs and Excise Office could not release them,” explained Bara.
