'Halal' criteria not effective to block chicken legs import

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Plans to use the halal requirement to help block chicken leg imports particularly from the U.S. will not be effective, according to an executive of the Indonesian Food and Beverages Association (Gapmi).

Thomas Darmawan said that with sophisticated technology, the U.S. poultry industry could easily meet the criteria.

According to the halal criteria, the chickens must be slaughtered in accordance with Islamic tradition.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on food standardization, Thomas said that a more effective way was to impose a high import tariff of up to 40 percent.

He added that the government could even negotiate for a much higher import tariff with the World Trade Organization (WTO) as long as it could prove that the chicken leg imports would cause damage to the local poultry industry.

"The best alternative is by introducing safeguards," he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued a policy in May last year banning the import of chicken legs from the U.S. to protect local farmers and consumers amid concern that the U.S. products were not halal.

But Minister of Trade and Industry Rini Soewandi had been trying hard to lift the ruling to allow the import of U.S. chicken legs provided they pass the halal requirement.

Vice President Hamzah Haz opposes the plan.

Rini said that imposing a high import tariff would be against the WTO ruling.

One international trade expert, however, said that the government could impose an import tariff of more than 200 percent, as opposed to the tariff limit on chicken leg imports of 40 percent set by the WTO.

The expert said that the high tariff policy would be allowed by the WTO if the government could prove that imports would cause serious damage to the local industry.

The expert said that U.S. government could not object to the policy.

Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that local poultry farmers have seen chicken imports grow sharply from only 347 tons in 1998 to 14,017 tons in 2000.

Elsewhere, Thomas urged local instant noodle industries to apply international food standards to boost their competitiveness in overseas markets.

He was referring to the codex Alimentarius standard, an international food code which serves as the basis for many national food standards.

Administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), the codex commission meets every two years to amend its standards and guidelines. It currently has 165 member countries including Indonesia.

Thomas said that the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) member countries would discuss the standardization of instant noodles in Bali between 20 May and 23 May.

"The ASEAN members will discuss the proposed draft standard for instant noodles before bringing it to Codex Asia in Kuala Lumpur in September," he said.