The use of framework legislation supported by voluntary standards has been a great success for the implementation of the EU Single Market and as such, inspired many countries and regions to adopt this approach. Indonesia as an ASEAN member state is exploring this method to prepare for the the vision of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which among others is to establish a single market and production base characterized by free flow of goods.
Related to this, the Indonesian National Standardization Agency or BSN in collaboration with ARISE + Indonesia held a webinar with the title "EU Technical Regulations and Its Use of Harmonized Standards" on 3 November 2020. The webinar was opened by Dr. Wahyu Purbowasito, Director of Agro, Chemical, Health and Halal Standard Development from BSN.
“This webinar will enrich the knowledge of the participants. We can learn the way the EU uses this approach so that [in the future], we can develop policies or use these standards in better ways.”
Dr. Wahyu Purbowasito, the Director for Standards Development of Agro, Chemical, Health and Halal from the National Standardization Agency of Indonesia or BSN.
Dr. Wahyu hopes that this is not the only seminar that discusses the legislation framework and voluntary standards. He hopes there will be more seminars like this.
The EU's practice of using standards to support legislation has inspired other regions and countries, including ASEAN. The ASEAN Community has introduced legislation for electronic, electrical and cosmetic products that are inspired by the EU legislation. Also, the AEC Blueprint aims to implement economic integration initiatives to create a single market for member states. “I believe that ASEAN will gradually adopt the same framework,” said Carsten Kudahl, Export Quality Infrastructure Expert from ARISE+ Indonesia who acted as the speaker at the webinar.
Indonesia and other ASEAN countries are different from the EU. So, it is not easy to implement this system quickly. But according to Carsten Kudahl, this system will be used more and more and the countries in South East Asia will move to this direction soon. The main reason is that mandatory framework legislation supported by voluntary standards which ensure presumption of compliance with the essential requirements in the legislation saves a lot of resources from legislators. An alternative approach is that the legislators develop detailed technical product legislations, which practically is impossible because of fast technological change.
More than 130 participants joined in the webinar which was also streamed through the ARISE+ Indonesia YouTube channel. They represented various ministries and state agencies, certification companies and universities, and come from different provinces in Indonesia.
You may access the webinar presentation materials through this link.
