Working Group

Import - Export Procedures

  • Head of Working Group
    Rachmat Hidayat
    Government Relations Director - Danone
  • Deputy Head of Working Group
    Prita Hapsari
    Customs Head for Zone AOA (Asia Oceania Africa) of Nestlé

About the Group

The massive deregulation conducted by the Indonesian government also touches on customs and cross-border trade facilitation issues. Since first launching its efforts in late 2015, the government has continuously simplified various licensing and customs procedures for the import and export process, and by late 2017 has amended 63 regulations at the ministerial level to introduce a new post-border supervision mechanism in early 2018. The Indonesia National Single Window (INSW) is also continuously being developed and by the end of 2017 it incorporated licenses from 18 ministries and agencies. The government is now aiming to integrate more ministries into the system and to create better linkages with other online systems managed by in-line ministries. 

Another initiative taken to reduce logistics costs and therefore facilitate trade is encouraging more compliance companies to be certified as an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and Customs Main Partner (MITA), as these companies have contributed a 30% reduction of dwelling time, from 3.4 days to 2.38 days. The development of 45 bonded logistics centres in 72 locations is intended to facilitate cross-border trade by making Indonesia the logistics hub of the region.

The WTO estimates that the full implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement ratified by Indonesia in 2017 could reduce global trade costs by an average of 14.3% and potentially increase global goods exports by up to 1 trillion dollars each year, with the biggest impact being felt by developing countries. In addition, several free trade agreements are under ongoing negotiation, including under the framework of the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IE-CEPA), to deepen and strengthen a key aspect of the bilateral relationship by eliminating barriers and tariffs for the flow of goods, services, as well as by streamlining customs procedures and trade facilitation. 

In 2017 the Import-Export Procedures Working Group observed and discussed the above-mentioned crucial initiatives and offered recommendations for the improvement of the business climate in Indonesia. The group held 2 (two) internal meetings and 10 (ten) policy meetings with multiple stakeholders. Nine official Recommendation Letters were also sent out within the year.

A number of regulations at the ministerial level were issued between 2017 to early 2018, by taking into consideration formal inputs from the group, such as import provisions for iron or steel products, horticulture products, forestry products, food and drugs as well as their ingredients. The group was also actively involved in stimulating an open dialogue with relevant stakeholders in the sectoral seminar on Customs and Cross-Border Trade Facilitation at the EIBD (EU-Indonesia Business Dialogue) conference 2017.

The group closely monitors various topics related to import-export procedures, among others: 

  • Customs and Cross-Border Trade initiatives.  
  • The development of the Indonesia National Single Window and the integration of other electronic services by in-line ministries. 
  • Import-Export licenses and requirements. 
  • Customs procedures regulations. 
  • Harmonisation of HS Code and Import-Export Duty Tariffs.

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