Indonesia's Poultry Import Ban Being Investigated

November 13, 2000

Foreign Agricultural Service officials in Jakarta, Indonesia, are investigating a directive by the Indonesian government banning imports of chicken cuts. The directive does not specify a date of implementation or duration, but reports from the trade indicate that it was implemented as early as July.

At a meeting earlier this month with Indonesian officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Industry and Trade, FAS asked the government to rescind the ban immediately. Agriculture official insisted there were reasons for prohibiting the imports and so far, FAS reports, there has been no movement on the U.S. request.

The issue also was raised by the U.S. ambassador to the Indonesian Minister of Industry and Trade and by the charge d'affaires and agricultural counselor to the Minister of Agriculture. Both ministers indicated that they were unaware of the problem but would investigate and provide a response, for which U.S. officials are still waiting. The United States is undertaking its own investigation and will as a result take immediate steps to resolve the issue either bilaterally or within an international trade forum such as the World Trade Organization.

Indonesian agricultural officials have confirmed that the government took the action to protect domestic poultry producers from imports of lower-priced chicken leg quarters and due to fears that the chicken being imported was not certified.. The government of Indonesia does not have special safeguards in place for chicken meat under the WTO.

The FAS office in Jakarta has requested an investigation of the propriety of the policy under Indonesia's international commitments. Indonesia has a WTO bound rate on poultry meat of 40% and currently imposes a 5% import tariff. Foreign certification centers must be certified by the Indonesian Islamic Council (MUI).

FAS says the recent ban is the latest step in a long history of protection of poultry producers through a written prior approval process known as Surat Rekomendasi Importir (SRI). Each importer is required to submit an SRI stating the type of commodity to be imported, processing plant number, certification, proposed date of import, country of origin, quantity and port of entry. The volume of imports can be reduced subject to conflict with domestic production and if approved the final destination of the product is adjusted so as to not compete with designated domestic markets.

Indonesia is expected to import around 6,000 metric tons of chicken parts this year, an increase of 50% over the previous year but still just a fraction of total consumption. During the January to June period, chicken meat imports totaled 3,583 tons of which 91% was chicken parts and 9% whole chicken. The U.S. supplies 74% of total chicken parts imports.