TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia is now the only beneficiary of the United States’ Generalized System of Preference (GSP) facility in Asia. The duty-free access facility would further open up opportunities to boost the country's exports.

The U.S. has partially or fully removed GSP facilities for other regional trading partners, including India, Turkey, and Thailand.

“As the U.S. removed the GSP facilities for Thailand, India, and Turkey, Indonesia has the opportunity to increase its exports, especially products supplied by the three countries, such as electronics, furniture, rubber products, and others,” said the Trade Ministry Director General of Export Development, Kasan Muhri, Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

Apart from the GSP, the Trade Ministry was striving to encourage exports by building intensive communication with the U.S. government to deal with trade barriers and encouraging the relocation of the U.S. industry from China to Indonesia.

Additionally, Kasan said his side was studying the possibility of future bilateral trade negotiations in order to gain better market access.

Indonesian Ambassador to the U.S. Muhammad Lutfi said that due to the removal status of GSP, Thailand would lose 804 tariff posts or US$ 2.4 billion from its products under the GSP facilities.

“I see that this will become a trend of strengthening industry-based exports, such as the automotive industry. We can also see that the porcelain or tableware industry runs very well,” said Lutfi.

Also Read: US Extends GSP Facilities for 700 Indonesian Export Products

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