In order to discuss trade barriers for Indonesian Viscose Staple Fibers (VSF) products to India, the Association of Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers (APSyFl) held an audience with the National Standardization Agency (BSN), on Friday (25/8/2023) at the BSN Office , Jakarta. The Chairperson of APSyFl, Redma Gita Wirawasta and his staff were received by the Deputy for Standard Application and Conformity Assessment of BSN, Zakiyah together with the Director of Standard Application and Conformity Assessment System of BSN, Konny Sagala and the Team.
In her remarks, Zakiyah said that as a follow-up to India's response through the Technical Barriers to Trade World Trade Organization (TBT WTO) Committee Meeting in June 2023, BSN again submitted an inquiry to India, where Indonesia through BSN again asked for clarification on why India had not made factory verification to Indonesia, as well as asking India to postpone the implementation of this regulation if the supporting infrastructure is not ready.
It is known that at the WTO TBT sessions in March and June 2023, Indonesia submitted objections to India. In the statement submitted, Indonesia asked for clarification from India regarding the transition process for the very short period of regulation enforcement, which is 2 months, so that VSF Indonesia business actors have not yet been verified.
"Indonesia has asked India to consider, acknowledge and accept the test results issued by foreign conformity assessment bodies accredited by the National Accreditation Body (NAB) in accordance with international cooperation in conformity assessment such as IAF and ILAC Mutual/Multilateral Recognition Arrangement," said Zakiyah. .
Meanwhile, India's regulation regarding the VSF Quality Control Order has been in force since December 29, 2022. "Since the enactment of this regulation, Indonesian VSF business actors have faced obstacles to exporting VSF products to India," said Redma Gita Wirawasta.
This VSF export barrier, he continued, was due to the fact that the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had not carried out factory verification on Indonesian business actors, so that Indonesian VSF business actors had not yet received the certificate required according to regulations from India. Even though all the requirements have been fulfilled in accordance with the stipulated conditions.
On the same occasion, the President Director of PT. Asia Pacific Rayon as well as the APSyFI Advisory Board, Basrie Kamba, expressed his appreciation to BSN for bringing the issue of VSF trade barriers to the WTO TBT forum.
In response to India's response, Basrie conveyed that the condition that occurred was that India had verified its domestic VSF business actors, while for foreign VSF business actors, India had verified Austrian and British producers.
In the future, BSN will also coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Trade, so that the issue of barriers to trade in VSF products becomes one of the agendas discussed at the bilateral meeting between Indonesia and India and at the G20 New Delhi 2023 Summit.