"I call on parties concerned to finish revising the law soon so that it will enable us to import beef from countries based on a zone system, not on a country basis," Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan hoped that the revision of Law No. 18/2009 on livestock and animal health would be accelerated to facilitate beef procurement through imports.

"I call on parties concerned to finish revising the law soon so that it will enable us to import beef from countries based on a zone system, not on a country basis," the minister said during a coordination meeting here on Wednesday.

He said that the revision of the law had reached the phase of deliberating the checklist problem by the ministry of agriculture. The process was expected to be completed at the end of January 2014 at the latest.

"If the checklist is already discussed the revision will probably be finished soon. It will give us freedom to import cattle," the minister said.

He said that if the revision was already completed, particularly on the clause that arranged the country-base system, Indonesia could import cattle or beef from any country like Brazil, which now adopted a zone-based import system.

"We can import cattle from any country as far as the country concerned has zones which are free from cattle diseases. Now we cannot import cattle from any country if it has a disease in one of its zones," Wirjawan said.

Agriculture Minister Suswono said meanwhile that the revision of the law was now being conducted together with the House of Representatives. It was expected to be finished at early sessions of the DPRs next sitting period.

"It is now being deliberated together with the DPR. We hope in the next sitting in January it will be finished. The government and the DPR have the same spirit," the minister said.

Suswono said that the revision of the law was very important for Indonesia to enable it to import cattle from alternative countries apart from Australia. But the interest of breeders at home is also taken into account in revising the law, he added.

"We should not be tied to one country only. We hope other alternatives, yet local breeders should neither be ignored and for that we should allow a price level which will encourage them to run cattle farming," the minister said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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