G/TBT/W/630  
 
8 April  2019 
(19-2251) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  English  
 
INDONESIA - HALAL PR ODUCT ASSURANCE LAW NO. 33 OF 2014  
STATEMENT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS T O TRADE  
6 AND 7  MARCH  2019 
The following communication, dated 5 April  2019, is being circulated at the request of the delegation 
of the European Union . 
 
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1.  The European Union would like to reiterate its serious concerns as regards the Indonesian Halal 
Product Guarantee Law No . 33 of September 2014, which has a ver y broad scope and affects, among 
others, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemical and biological products, all consumer goods 
and cosmetics, as well as related services. The Law, initially announced to be fully enforced as from 
2019, requires mandator y Halal certification and labelling for the products within its scope in order 
to be placed in the Indonesian market. In particular, Article 4 provides that products entering, 
circulating and traded in the territory of Indonesia must be Halal certified.  
2.  According to recent information, several government regulations on the technical implementation 
of the Halal Law would be under preparation, in particular, the draft implementing regulation on 
Halal Product Assurance. The European Union would welcome an upd ate of the status of 
implementing provisions and clarifications on whether the date of effective application of the Halal 
law, foreseen for October 2019 is maintained. The European Union would also be interested in having 
information on the gradual impleme ntation of the Halal law and the different sets of products 
covered, as well as any transitional periods.  
3.  The EU invites Indonesia, for transparency purposes, and as set out in Article 2.9 of the TBT 
Agreement, to notify the draft implementing regulations for the Halal law via the TBT notification 
system. In accordance with Article 2.9.4 of the TBT Agreement, reasonable time should be allowed, 
so that eventual comments by Members can be taken into consideration. Furthermore, as foreseen 
in Article 2.12 of t he TBT Agreement, Indonesia should, as a general rule, allow for a reasonable 
interval of time between the publication and the enforcement of adopted measures, in order to allow 
time for producers in exporting Members to adapt their products or methods of production to 
Indonesian requirements.  
4.  The European Union considers that Halal measures, if adopted, shall not act as unnecessarily 
restrictive trade barriers, but should have the purpose of ensuring reliability of information and 
facilitating consumer's c hoice. The EU calls upon Indonesia to reconsider its approach and keep Halal 
certification and labelling voluntary, as a less trade restrictive measure respectful with the legitimate 
objective of ensuring reliable information.  
5.  The European Union would seek  confirmation that European companies or exporters would 
evaluate their products and determine whether they wish to claim that these are Halal or not and 
therefore whether they require Halal certification or not. The European Union would also like to ask 
for confirmation that it would be possible to place non -Halal products in the Indonesian market in 
accordance with the Halal Law without time limitation. The European Union notes that according to 
recent information provided by Indonesia, there is no obliga tion for non -Halal products to be 
certified. However, the European Union conveys its concerns on the fact that non -Halal products 
should display specific non -Halal information, such as images, signs or written text, since this would G/TBT/W/630  
 
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  be unnecessary and woul d create an excessive burden for operators. The European Union considers 
that, in the absence of a Halal claim from the producer, no labelling obligations are justified.  
6.  The European Union notes that the provisions included in the previous draft of the im plementing 
regulation on Halal Product Assurance in relation to the physical separation of Halal and non -Halal 
products during processing, storage, or distribution would deviate from the provisions included in 
the "Codex Alimentarius Guidelines" for the us e of the term "Halal". Indeed, Codex guidelines allow 
for the processing of both (Halal and non -Halal products), within the same premises or processing 
establishments, provided that appropriate measures are taken to prevent any contact between Halal 
and no n-Halal products. In addition, the same Guidelines provide that Halal food can be transported 
using facilities which have been previously used for non -Halal products if proper cleaning procedures, 
according to Islamic requirements, are observed.  
7.  The Europ ean Union notes the introduction of an exemption clause in the previous draft of the 
implementing regulation, according to which, medicines, biological products and medical devices of 
a life-saving nature using non -Halal raw material or not following the H alal process can still be 
distributed and traded until a Halal substitution product is found. This would contradict the principle 
of coexistence between products claiming Halal compliance and other products. The European Union 
would like to seek confirmati on of the coexistence of Halal and non -Halal products without a time 
limitation, also for medicines, biological products and medical devices.  
8.  The European Union notes that the previous draft of the implementing regulation provides for 
the recognition of fo reign Halal certification, according to which, products certified Halal by a foreign 
Halal institution having mutual recognition cooperation on Halal certification with the Halal Product 
Assurance Agency (BPJPH) do not need the BPJPH certificate, but only the product registration. The 
EU would like to obtain further information of the planned set -up for such mutual recognition 
schemes and on the timing for their operation, in view of Member States concerns in this respect 
and the need to obtain or renew the  recognition of their Halal certifying bodies and avoid uncertainty. 
The European Union encourages Indonesia to find appropriate temporary solutions to avoid 
interrupting trade with Member States while the new system in put in place.  
9.  According to the info rmation available, in addition to the Halal Product Guarantee Law, additional 
provisions on Halal requirements would have already been set out in separate regulations for specific 
products, (for instance, for imports of carcasses and meat), and further req uirements would be 
under preparation for milk and milk products, fats, gelatines, egg products and honey. Both the lack 
of transparency on implementing rules and this fragmented approach create uncertainty as to the 
requirements applicable at any point in time.  
10.  The EU would like to recall that, under Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement, technical rules should 
not be more trade restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective.  
 
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