Regulatory Readiness of Halal Industry in Indonesia to Overcome Asean Economic Community Border Area

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) provides various opportunities and challenges for AEC members. With a broader and more diverse market in AEC members, the halal industry in Indonesia has the opportunity to expand at ASEAN level. Meanwhile, the AEC also poses various challenges for the halal industry in Indonesia. Among AEC members, there are several countries which have halal industry, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei, although not all of them has large Muslim population. Unfortunately, Indonesia still become the primary market for halal industry products and services due to its large number of Muslim populations. Furthermore, the overseas market for Indonesia is limited due to the small population of other halal industry-produced countries. Thus, there are many opportunities for the Indonesian halal industry with the existence of the AEC. On the other hand, the AEC brings a big challenge for the domestic halal industry: protect the domestic market from foreign halal products. Therefore, the role of regulation is important to prepare halal industries in Indonesia to overcome AEC. This paper aims to analyze the current regulation regarding the halal industry and the AEC in Indonesia. This paper will mainly discuss regulations for the local halal product and imported halal products. By knowing the current condition of the halal industry in Indonesia, the level of legal readiness can be analyzed. Using the analysis of the regulation supporting halal industry, it can be estimated whether Indonesia is ready or not to take the maximum benefit from the AEC.