WASHINGTON: The US and New Zealand have joined forces in asking the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a dispute settlement panel examining Indonesia’s wide-ranging restrictions on horticulture and animal imports.
Indonesia, home to 250 million people, has put in place a set of measures including import registrations, special import permits, and a tightening scrutiny of imported goods. Its import barriers effect fresh and dried fruits (such as apples, grapes and oranges) and vegetables (including potatoes, onions and shallots), flowers, juices, cattle, beef (including a ban on secondary cuts), poultry (including a ban on chicken parts), and other animal products.
The US has consulted with Indonesia several times over disagreements with the Southeast Asian nation’s import barriers. The US government bodies have worked on this over the past two years with the hope of holding the country to its trading commitments. It consulted with Indonesia in January of 2013, and together with New Zealand consulted again on August 2013 and May 2014. Indonesia has been accused of breaking its obligations under the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its agreements on agriculture, import licensing and pre-shipment inspection.
