Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024 Is Dynamic and May Be Revised Again
Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024 is dynamic.
This regulation concerns Import Policies and Regulations.
The regulation had already been amended three times from the previous Minister of Trade Regulation, starting from Regulation No. 36 of 2023, followed by Regulation No. 3 of 2024 and Regulation No. 7 of 2024.
Many provisions were updated again.
The direction to amend the Minister of Trade Regulation came from the President.
The purpose was to address issues arising from the implementation of Minister of Trade Regulation No. 36/2023 in conjunction with No. 3/2024 and No. 7/2024.
These regulations tightened import requirements and added import licensing requirements in the form of Technical Consideration (Pertimbangan Teknis/Pertek).
Will the Regulation Be Revised Again?
The Director General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade stated that in the future, the regulation may be revised again depending on economic conditions.
This shows that the Minister of Trade Regulation is dynamic.
At this point, we cannot confirm whether the changes are temporary or whether the regulation will eventually return to provisions similar to Minister of Trade Regulation No. 36 of 2023.
Since Minister of Trade Regulation No. 36 of 2023 became effective on March 10, 2024, container congestion occurred at several major ports.
Ports affected included:
- Tanjung Priok Port
- Tanjung Perak Port
- Tanjung Emas Port
- Other major ports
The congestion occurred because Import Approvals (Persetujuan Impor/PI) and Technical Considerations had not yet been issued for several commodities.
These commodities included:
- Iron and steel
- Textiles
- Chemical products
- Electronic products
- Other commodities
The number of containers being held reached:
- 17,304 containers at Tanjung Priok Port
- 9,111 containers at Tanjung Perak Port
With the issuance of Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024, several import licensing requirements were relaxed.
The container congestion occurred because one of the import licensing requirements required a relatively long processing time.
That requirement was the Technical Consideration (Pertek).
Import Licensing Relaxation
Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, and Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga visited the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT).
The visit took place on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
During the visit, they observed the accumulation of:
- 17,304 containers at Tanjung Priok Port
- 9,111 containers at Tanjung Perak Port, East Java
The congestion had occurred since Minister of Trade Regulation No. 36 of 2023 was issued and became effective 90 days later on March 10, 2024.
Due to these conditions, Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024 was implemented to provide import licensing relaxation for containers that had already been held at the ports.
Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024 allowed all import licensing processes to be resubmitted for containers that had arrived at Indonesian ports between:
March 10, 2024 and May 17, 2024.
Since May 17, 2024, Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024 has been in effect.
Import licensing processes must follow the applicable regulations.
The import licensing relaxation is no longer applicable.
For those who would like to obtain more information regarding changes under Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8 of 2024, you can also read our article about the Government revising the Minister of Trade Regulation again.