The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR) this week initiated World Trade Organization dispute proceedings against Indonesia by targeting Indonesia’s licensing restrictions on imports of certain animal products and horticulture. In requesting WTO consultations with Indonesia, the United States charged that Indonesia has created a “complex web” of import licensing requirements that appear designed to protect Indonesia’s domestic agriculture industry.

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

According to WTO rules, the two countries have 60 days to resolve their differences. If an agreement cannot be reached within that period, the United States will be free to request the establishment of a WTO dispute panel to rule on its complaint.

Indonesia “has long maintained a non-automatic import licensing and quota regime for beef and other animal product imports,” USTR said. “Indonesia recently announced drastic reductions in quotas for beef and other animal product imports, further restricting access to the Indonesian market.” Regulations adopted by Indonesia in late 2011, establishing what USTR described as strict, non-automatic import licensing requirements for horticultural products. The regulations were revised in September 2012 to include “even more onerous requirements for horticultural imports,” USTR said, with the affected products including fruits, vegetables, flowers, dried fruits and vegetables and juices.

For both animal and horticulture products an importer “must complete multiple steps” prior to receiving authorization to import into Indonesia, with the measures applied “inconsistently and unpredictably,” the United States said in its complaint.

The measures violate various WTO rules, among them Article XI:1 of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade prohibiting import restrictions made effective through quotas or import licenses, Article 4.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture prohibiting “discretionary import licensing” on agricultural products, and various provisions under the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures relating to the implementation of import licensing regimes, USTR said. U.S. officials raised concerns about the measures in question at a meeting with Indonesia last June under the framework of their bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). In its 2012 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, USTR accused Indonesia of introducing “numerous new regulations affecting imports” in recent years, including import licensing requirements, which have “significantly [increased] the complexity of accessing the Indonesian market.”

U.S. goods and services trade with Indonesia totaled $28.5 billion in 2011. U.S. exports of agricultural products to Indonesia totaled $2.8 billion in the same year, making it the eighth largest U.S. agricultural export market. During January-November 2012, the United States exported 4,775 metric tons of poultry to Indonesia with a value of $4.46 million.