G/VAL/W/278  
 
6 October 2015  
(15-5200)  Page: 1/2  
 Original: English  
 
 PRESHIPMENT INSPECTION 
Questions from the United States to Indonesia regarding documents  
G/VAL/W/256 and G/VAL/W/257 
The following submission, dated 4 October 2015, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the United States.  
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  The United States would like to thank Indonesia for its replies in G/VAL/W/256 and G/VAL/W/257.  
We wish to reiterate, following up on our intervention in the May 2015 meeting of the Committee 
on Customs Valuation, that while we appreciate Indonesia's efforts to respond to our questions, we continue to have concerns.  We understand that Indonesia has notified some of the regulations to 
the Committee on Import Licensing.  However, for purposes of transparency and to have a robust 
discussion, we are interested in seeing the noti fications and discussing the substance of those 
documents in this Committee. 
 We understand from Indonesia's response in G/ VAL/W/257 that the "technical verification 
procedure" it conducts "includes verification of import documents (Company Legal documents, Import Licence documents, and Shipping documents) and technical documents (technical information regarding imported goods, such as quantity, type, HS Code 
correctness, loading port, destination port, and country of origin)."  A similar response was 
provided in G/VAL/W/256.  As described, these procedures, at least in part, appear to overlap with the definition of preshipment inspection procedures in Article 1.3 of the 
Agreement on Preshipment Inspection.  We request further explanation from Indonesia as to 
its view that these procedures are not PSI activities.  
 We again request that these procedures be notified to this Committee, so that Member 
representatives in this Committee be afforded  the opportunity to review these measures. 
 Indonesia indicated that these procedures "provide better access for importers and 
exporters to obtain easy and fast importation services."  Could Indonesia provide further information on the practical ways in which these procedures speed entry into Indonesia? 
 Indonesia also notes that it has a provision in its Customs Law (No. 10 of 1995 as amended 
by Law No. 17 of 2006) that Indonesia's Customs and Excise Authority "do not conduct Preshipment Inspection".  We have reviewed notification G/VAL/N/1/IDN/1 and found that 
the notified legislation only included Article 15 on Customs Value and Ministry of Finance 
Decree No. 690/KMK.05/1996 on Customs Valuation for the Calculation of Import Duties .  
We request that Indonesia notify the specific section of the Customs Law related to 
Preshipment Inspection.    
 Further, we request clarification whether any restriction on conducting preshipment 
inspection is limited to Indonesia's Customs and Excise Authority or if it applies more broadly to all ministries of the Indonesian government.  
 We would also like to note that we anticipate having additional questions with respect to the 
responses provided by Indonesia in G/VAL/W/256 in response to questions in G/VAL/W/167.   G/VAL/W/278 
 
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   As to customs laws, we understand that that Indonesia amended its customs law in Law 
No. 17 of 2006, and we request that Indonesia notify that law.  
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