The country's fisheries sector development policy is based on three main pillars: pro poor, pro job and pro growth. As explicitly stated in the Fisheries Act 2004, the development of fisheries sector is to improve livelihood of fishermen and fish farmers; increase foreign exchange earning; provide employment opportunities; increase fish supply and fish consumption; improve management of fish resources; improve productivity, quality, value and competitiveness of the industry; increase supply of fish raw material for processing; optimize the exploitation of the resources; and to ensure the sustainability of the resources.

Thus, there are two general policies which are closely related to trade in fish and fishery products namely: increase fish supply (consumption) in the domestic market; and at the same time increase export of fishery products to the international markets.

Fisheries Policy

Department of Fisheries

The Directorate General of Fish Processing and Marketing of MOMAF is the competent authority for certification of fishery products for export. The country has a national policy on seafood quality and safety development based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and it is called Integrated Quality Management Programme (IQMP).

The main regulations for implementing certification for fishery are :

• Fisheries Act No. 9, 1985, Article 9, as amended by Fisheries Act No. 32, 2004, Article 20-23.
• Ministerial Decree of the MOMAF No. 01/Men/02, regarding the implementation of IQMP on fisheryproducts.
• Ministerial Decree of the MOMAF No. Kep.21/Men/2004, regarding the Inspection and Quality Control
• System for fishery products intended for export to the European Union (EU).

Fisheries Data

The MOMAF maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date data on production and trade. Under the MOMAF there are several agencies/division maintaining fisheries data namely the Centre for Data and Information Department, Statistics Division under the respective DGs e.g. Statistics Division of the DG of Aquaculture maintains aquaculture and trade data; Statistics Division of the DG of Capture Fisheries maintains data related to capture fisheries (production, vessels etc.).

The following are published statistics from the MOMAF:

• Capture Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia (annual data available up to 2003; published in2005).
• Pocket Book of Capture Fisheries Statistics of Indonesia 1999-2004.  Indonesia Aquaculture
• Statistics (annual data available up 2003; published in 2004).Pocket Book of Aquaculture
• Statistics 2004.   Annual Export Statistics of Fishery products (latest data up to 2004).   Annual
• Import Statistics of Fishery products (latest data up to 2004).

For trade statistics (exports/imports) the MOMAF receives data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) collected based on export/import declaration documents. The data uses 9 digit Harmonized System (HS) and BPS provides monthly data to the MOMAF.

Indonesian Fisheries Statistics[

 

Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements/Free Trade Agreements

 

The country's general trade policy is to implement its commitments within the multilateral trade arrangement (WTO and APEC) and regional trade agreement through ASEAN. Indonesia has so far yet to establish bilateral trade agreement with any countries. Through the multilateral and regional trade agreements, Indonesia has targeted to increase its overall exports value to IDR 2364 trillion (US$ 249 billion) by the year 2019.

ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) :

As a founding member of ASEAN, Indonesia is one of the key members participating in the AFTA, together with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines. Under AFTA, the six original members of ASEAN, including Indonesia, have committed to reduce/eliminate tariffs through Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme (CEPT) to a maximum 5% from 2003 and will be eliminated completely by 2010. Indonesia has transferred all tariff lines under CEPT to 5% or less and its average import tariff is 3.6% by 2003. Since January 2003 the country has no list of sensitive products. Import duties for most of the fishery products are 5%, except for certain live fish that can be as high as 15% and 0% for fishmeal. In addition to import duties there is 10% value-added tax for all imported fishery products

Bilateral Free Trade Agreement

Unlike its neighbouring countries, Indonesia does not give high priority for establishing bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Hence up to now there are no bilateral FTAs signed by the country, except those agreements signed through ASEAN framework. However, the country is now in negotiation with Japan to establish Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) to liberalize and facilitate trade between both countries. The next meeting is scheduled to be in Jakarta in December 2005 for both parties to present their "request and offer". On fishery products, Indonesia will request for greater market access especially for value-added products and flexible rules of origin.

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

Indonesia is also pursuing trade agreement with EFTA whereby fisheries is one of the important aspect in the future negotiation. The country is also a member of D8 (Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Nigeria) which is exploring greater trade link between these countries. Ministerial meeting of D8 is scheduled to be held in March 2006 to explore FTA among its members.

Indonesia intends to implement APEC's voluntary target set in the Bogor Declaration 1994 to liberalize trade (free trade) among its members by 2020.

Indonesia is an active member of WTO and it has an observer status in the WTO multilateral agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft and member of the Cairns Group of Agricultural Producers and Exporters. Cairns Group consists of WTO members pushing for multilateral trade liberalization of agricultural products.

The Director General of the International Trade Co-operation of the Ministry of Commerce coordinates WTO matters. To improve coordination among various government agencies and trade experts, the government is planning to form the Indonesia Trade Committee to deal with all trade related issues. In the fisheries sector, there are few WTO issues where by Indonesia has a special interest:

Fisheries Subsidy : Considering that 90% of fishermen/fish farmers in Indonesia are small-scale operators, the government supports the proposed "special and different treatment" that allows developing countries to give selective subsidies especially for artisanal fishermen. Financial assistance to improve food safety and food security should also be allowed and should not be considered as subsidies. On the other hand, assistance that will encourage IUU fishing and market distortion, however, should not be allowed.

 NAMA: As producer and exporter of fishery products, Indonesia is also in favour of trade liberalization in seafood, through Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) negotiation.   
     
SPS/TBT: The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) used to be the focal point or Notification Body and Enquiry point for TBT and SPS matters including for fisheries. However, since the formation of the MOMAF, separated from the MOA, the notification body is not very active and fisheries related matters are not covered.

More info on Indonesia and WTO