Ron Kirk
Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced Thursday that the United States is requesting consultations with Indonesia under the dispute settlement provisions of the World Trade Organization concerning trade-restrictive measures applied to horticultural products, animals, and animal products.

“Indonesia’s opaque and complex import licensing system affects a wide range of American agricultural exports,” Kirk said in a news release. “It has become a serious impediment to U.S. agricultural exports entering Indonesia, reducing Indonesian consumers’ access to high-quality U.S. products.”

In late 2011, Indonesia passed regulations establishing strict non-automatic import licensing requirements for horticultural products and made them even stricter in 2012, USTR said. The affected products include, but are not limited to, fruits, vegetables, flowers, dried fruits and vegetables and juices.

Indonesia has long maintained a similar non-automatic import licensing and quota regime for beef and other animal product imports and recently announced drastic reductions in quotas for beef and other animal product imports, USTR added.