Harmonization of Standardization, Certification and Labeling for Halal Products in Indonesia in Drafting the Policies with Regards to the Import of Food Pursuant to the TBT Agreement

Abstract

In recent years, developing countries tend to take defense action against the aggression from the import products as the effect of rapid process of the international trade, which is supported by technology, information and communication. One of such developing countries  is Indonesia, that in this regard is taking measures in the field of trade security, one of which is through the protection of policy in the poultry sector, this requires people to stop importing chicken meat from Brazil. National regulation shows that Indonesia is enacting a quite strict supervision to the products circulating around the Indonesian market, either originating from domestic or international sources. The policy with regards to Brazil was made pursuant to an agreement proposed by Brazil itself. Brazil was questioning the implementation of procedures from the TBT Agreement concerning standardization, labelling and certification for halal products in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to understand the cause or legal basis underlying the act of Indonesian government to restrict the import of chicken meat from Brazil to Indonesia in connection with the standardization, certification and labelling of halal products in Indonesia, and to analyze how the government is arranging steps and strategy to increase the policy on import according to the national interest without creating impediments in the field of trade. This study is using normative juridical approach towards the rules and regulations (statute approach) as well as cases (case approach). The data used are secondary data, it includes rules and regulations and relevant literatures to the non-tariff infringement, certification, and labelling of halal products for food.