Strengthening Port-of-Entry Supervision Under the Revision of Law on Standardization and Conformity Assessment

National standardization expert Prof. Arief Safari has proposed that the revision of Law No. 20 of 2014 on Standardization and Conformity Assessment (“Law 20/2014”) strengthen supervision at ports of entry for imported goods. The proposed measure is intended to protect consumers and domestic industries from an influx of imported products that fail to comply with Indonesian National Standards (Standar Nasional Indonesia – “SNI”).

Arief noted that weaknesses in the current supervisory framework have allowed imported products that do not meet applicable standards, including those entering Indonesia through e-commerce channels, to circulate easily in the domestic market. This situation could potentially harm consumers. “We have seen that, with the rise of e-commerce, a large number of children’s toys have slipped into our market despite being of substandard quality. This is extremely concerning,” he said.

Arief proposed that port-of-entry supervision be carried out through cross-agency collaboration. In his view, the National Standardization Agency (Badan Standardisasi Nasional – “BSN”) cannot undertake such supervision on its own, as its authority is limited to the development of standards, while the determination and enforcement of mandatory SNI requirements fall within the authority of the relevant technical ministries as regulators.

Furthermore, Arief proposed that the revised legislation provide for an early-warning system to strengthen the monitoring of product non-compliance. According to Arief, Indonesia could adopt a system modeled on the European Union’s RAPEX, under which a nationwide alert may be issued when a product that fails to comply with applicable standards is identified in a particular region, allowing its circulation to be promptly addressed.