The necessity for Zambia's vitamin A sugar fortification requirement

Zambia faces a serious vitamin A deficiency (VAD) that affects most infants and expectant mothers, leading to night blindness, maternal deaths, and more. One of the efforts to address this is by permitting only the manufacture, sale, or import of household consumption sugar which is fortified with vitamin A - which is seen as a disguised restriction on international trade. Through a desk-top research study, the article examines the question, as to what extent Zambia's fortification requirement complies with the necessity principle in the Technical Barrier to Trade Annex to the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Trade (TBT Annex) and Article 2(2) of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The research finds that the measure is a technical regulation with a legitimate objective to protect the health and lives of a target VAD Zambian population. Further, it is applied to both domestic and like foreign products; therefore, it is neither discriminatory nor directly linked to the lack of competitive opportunities for like foreign products. Even if fortified maize meal could be opted for instead of sugar, it cannot achieve the equivalent contribution in dealing with the VAD problem because of challenges, such as, the uncertainty in regulatory regime, and its irregular consumption pattern. Consequently, the sugar fortification requirement is not more trade restrictive than necessary under the TBT Annex and Article 2(2) of the TBT Agreement.

NON-TARIFF MEASURES (NTMS) AND INDONESIAN NATURAL RUBBER EXPORT TO THE MAIN EXPORT DESTINATION COUNTRIES

The value of natural rubber exports is declining continuously every year. One of the reasons for the decline in the value of natural rubber exports is due to the implementation of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) by the main export destination countries in international trade. The most widely applied NTMs policies in trading countries are Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT). This study aims to analyze the impact of NTMs on Indonesia's natural rubber exports from 2012 to 2016. The estimation result shows the GDP coverage ratio of SPS and coverage ratio of TBT significantly affect the export value of the natural rubber of Indonesia. SPS variable shows a negative coefficient value while the TBT variable shows a positive coefficient value. Keywords: Natural Rubber, Gravity Model, Inventory Approach, NTMsJEL Classification: F13, F14, Q17

Impact of Non Tariff Measure on Indonesian Cacao Exports

Increased awareness of food safety issues has resulted in non-tariff measure in the form of sanitary and phytosanitary, technical barrier to trade applied to various importing countries. The policy is widely applied by various countries on agricultural commodities, especially Cocoa. Cocoa is Indonesia's flagship commodity exported to many countries. The purpose of this research is to analyze the implementation and impact of non tariff measure on Indonesian cocoa exports. The model used in this research is to estimate the result of inventory approach in gravity model. The results show that Sanitary and Phytosanitary policy has an effect on decreasing export value of Indonesian Cocoa while Technical Barrier to Trade has no significant effect. SPS policy is mostly applied to Cocoa Beans while TBT is more applied to processed cocoa. So, Indonesia needs to improve the processing of cocoa beans such as cacao shells, cacao paste, cacao butter, cacao powder, chocolate and other preparations. The government needs to provide socialization to Indonesian cocoa agribusiness entrepreneurs in the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary policy. Government programs or policies are designed according to the characteristics of SPS and TBT.

Perlindungan Lingkungan Hidup dalam Perdagangan Internasional

Isu lingkungan hidup tidak dapat dipisahkan dari perdagangan intemasional. Dalam sejarahpembentukan GATT pada tahun 1947 isu lingkungan hidup telah dimuat dalam artikel XX tentang "General Exception ". Aturan dasar ini kemudian disepakati dalam "Tokyo Round"menjadi "Agreement on Technical Barrier to Trade" dan disempumakan dalam "Uruguay Round". Melalui perjanjian ini GATT/WTO kemudian mengakui keberadaan "International Organization for Standarization (ISO)". Dengan demikian melahirkan pengakuan keterkaitan antara perdagangan intemasional dengan isu lingkungan hidup.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPT ON RETAIL INDUSTRY

The objectives of this paper seek to know how sustainability concept and implementation of the retail industry in Indonesia based on sustainability theoretical framework. The research was conducted in Jakarta (Indonesia), the survey was carried out on the basis of questionnaire that was used as a support during the interviews. A total of 137 Indonesia retail enterprises were involved in the research. The results achieved highlight, how CSR does make business sense in Indonesia context. This process calls for new forms of collaboration involving firms along the supply chain, local authorities, the international player and civil society. The conclusion of this research how CSR become a mandatory requirement for access to the International market, transform itself into a new type of technical barrier to trade. CSR need to be fostered rather than imposed through the creation of innovative partnership and locally rooted solution

STANDARDISASI INDUSTRI NASIONAL DALAM MEWUJUDKAN PEMBANGUNAN BERKELANJUTAN

Undang-Undang Nomor 3 Tahun 2014 Tentang Perindustrian mengatur tata industri nasional menjadi lebih peduli terhadap lingkungan dengan mengusung paradigma pembangunan berkelanjutan. Norma pembangunan berkelanjutan diatur lebih lanjut melalui mekanisme Standardisasi Perindustrian. Sebagai konsekuensi Indonesia menjadi anggota WTO, regulasi standardisasi industri telah diperbarui dengan cara mengintegrasi ketentuan standardisasi dalam perjanjian Agreement on Technical Barrier to Trade. Penulisan artikel ini bertujuan mengetahui perbandingan kaidah standardisasi yang diatur Agreement on Technical Barrier to Trade dan UU Perindustrian serta hubungannya dengan pembangunan berkelanjutan. Hasil yang didapat adalah kaidah dari kedua sumber hukum tersebut identik dan terhubung sebagai instrumen pengaturan yang efektif dalam pembangunan industri dengan tetap menjamin aspek keamanan, keselamatan dan kesehatan manusia serta kelestarian fungsi lingkungan hidup.