Indonesia to counter flood of Chinese agricultural products

The Indonesian government expressed intentions to limit the flood of agricultural imports from China as a result of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement by applying non-tariff barriers.

The ''technical barriers'' would include standards for sanitation and the use of pesticides based on World Trade Organization rules, and would involve regular inspections of fresh food.

Technical barriers will be the most reliable instruments to face down the FTA, and to prevent the flood of low-quality agricultural products into the country, said Hari Priyono, the head of the quarantine agency at the Agriculture Ministry.

The agency had already made preparations to regularly inspect imports. Produce found to have unacceptably high levels of pesticides or to have arrived from countries with known crop diseases could be blocked from entering Indonesia, Hari said.

Under the trade agreement, import duties on agriculture products on the ''highly sensitive'' list, including crop seeds and rice, will be reduced to between zero and 50% by 2015.

Tariffs have already been removed on many agricultural products, such as milk, fresh meat and fish.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said the trade deal should be seen as an opportunity to increase agricultural exports to China.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data, Indonesia exported US$7.7-billion worth of goods to China in the first 11 months of 2009, and imported US$12.01-billion worth of goods -- a deficit of US$4.3 billion.