Global Trade Alert

On 24 June 2013, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade issued regulation 29/M-DAG/PER/6/2013 restricting exports of crude palm oil and its derivatives.
Based on article 2 of the regulation, exports of crude palm oil (hereinafter: CPO) and its derivatives shall be subject to verification or a technical search conducted by a licensed surveyor. The procedure includes physical verification of 

• the number, type, brand and package number,
• the number and type of goods,
• technical specifications,
• HS codes concerned,
• as well as the supervision of the loading process and issuing the seal on the containers (art. 5(1)b).

Before being recognized by the Ministry of Trade, a surveyor needs to:

• own a surveyor license,
• obtain an accreditation as an inspection institution from the National Accreditation Committee,
• have experience as a surveyor of CPO and its derivatives for at least 5 years,
• possess a wide network of verification and technical search services across the country,
• have experts and equipment appropriate to the duty it has to fulfil (art. 4).

The provisions were supposed to come into force 6 months after issuance but it was changed by amendment 02/M-DAG/PER/1/2014 to 12 months. Therefore the new regulation applied starting on 24 June 2014.
A detailed list of the technical specifications is given in the appendix of regulation 29/M-DAG/PER/6/2013.
 
Updates:
On 14 July 2015, the Indonesian Minister of Trade issued a new regulation 54/M-DAG/PER/7/2015 replacing the initial provisions. The amendment included an expanded list of requirements for exporters such as having sufficient IT systems, 10 laboratories with complete equipment (at least 5 of them nationally certified) and providing a good track record in the verification process.
On 22 October 2015, the Ministry passed regulation 90/M-DAG/PER/10/2015 slightly updating the export restrictions. The amendment did not include any relevant changes.