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Author	Prof Michelle Limenta, S.H., LL.M., Ph.D.
Organisation/Institution	Universitas Pelita Harapan, Faculty of Law
Country	INDONESIA
Panel	International Regulation of Trade
Title	Battery Barriers: ACFTA and RCEP Technical Barriers to Trade and Their Impact on EV Supply Chain Integration
Abstract	The growth of Asia’s EV battery supply chain has outpaced the development of legal frameworks for harmonizing technical standards and conformity procedures. Divergent national regulations continue to raise compliance costs, delay cross-border manufacturing, and risk undermining Indonesia’s ambition to become a regional EV battery hub. While existing Asian economic integration has focused heavily on tariff reduction and investment, there has been less attention given to the legal framework governing Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), despite their major role in determining supply chain interoperability. This paper addresses that gap by comparing how the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) regulate TBT in strategic sectors. Focusing on EV battery standards (HS 8507), the paper examines how ACFTA’s cooperation-based TBT framework contrasts with RCEP’s binding, WTO-aligned obligations on standards, equivalence, and conformity assessment. This paper employs a doctrinal comparative method to evaluate which FTA framework provides a more coherent approach to harmonization and how these differences influence Indonesia’s integration into regional EV battery supply chains. Although ACFTA concluded its 3.0 upgrade in 2024, this paper relies on the operative ACFTA 2.0 text to establish a stable legal baseline for assessing the upgrade’s future implications. The paper concludes by proposing institutional and regulatory strategies to accelerate ASEAN-wide convergence of EV battery standards. Keywords: ACFTA, RCEP, Technical Barriers to Trade, EV battery standards, Indonesia
Biography	Michelle Limenta is a professor of law at Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) and the director of the UPH Center for International Trade and Investment. She completed her undergraduate legal studies in Indonesia at Trisakti University and an LL.M. at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. She was awarded a doctoral scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She won the Fulbright US-ASEAN Visiting Scholar Initiative Program to support her research at Georgetown University Law Center in 2023. Michelle is also an experienced researcher, policy consultant, and legal practitioner providing services on a broad range of topics to international organizations, public, and private agencies. She has worked extensively on the scope and mechanics of the ASEAN’s free trade agreements (FTAs), such as the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), and has experience conducting legal training on international trade topics and building capacity of ASEAN Member States on issues of regional economic integration.