Indonesia's SME Ministry: Some Textile Imports from China Were Not Registered
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7 August 2024 20:57 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs said some imported textiles from China were not registered as having entered the country, resulting in an estimated loss of trillions of rupiah. The suspicion stems from a discrepancy between China's export figures to Indonesia and Indonesia's import figures from China, a ministry official said.
"There is a large discrepancy in the HS code for apparel 61-63. China's export data to Indonesia is almost 3 times higher than Indonesia's imports from China. We suspect that this indicates that unregistered products were entering the country illegally," Temmy Setya Permana, the ministry's acting deputy chairman for SMEs, said here on Aug. 6.
Based on the ministry's trade map data, the potential value of Chinese textile products to Indonesia in 2022 was Rp29.5 trillion. In 2021, the potential value was Rp29.7 trillion.
Meanwhile, based on the same data, the value of Chinese exports to Indonesia in 2022 was recorded at Rp61.3 trillion. However, the value of Indonesia's imports from China was only Rp31.8 trillion. Meanwhile, in 2021, the value of Chinese exports to Indonesia was recorded at Rp58.1 trillion, and Indonesia's import value to China was Rp28.4 trillion.
This data, according to Temmy, raises suspicions that illegal products are entering Indonesia. "We suspect that there are products that have entered illegally and have not been registered. We are looking at various garments or textiles or textile products (TPT)," he said.
The large number of unregistered goods entering the country has flooded the domestic market with cheap, illegally imported goods. "This has resulted in price distortions in the market," he concluded.
Temmy said that illegal imports could result in the loss of 67,000 jobs with a total employee income of Rp2 trillion per year, as well as a potential loss of Rp11.83 trillion per year in multi-sector GDP from the textile industry.
The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs has recommended a safeguard import duty (BMTP) policy of 200 percent for textile products, taking into account the limitation only for end-use products such as apparel, accessories, and footwear.
Cicilia Ocha
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