TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Government urged to control flood of textile imports from China
The Indonesian Textile Association (API) has called on the government to further regulate imports, as cheap imported textile products continue to flood the market, hitting the domestic industry with losses.
Change Size
Traders close down their stores at the Tanah Abang textile market in Central Jakarta. The government is urged to control textile imports from China. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
T
he Indonesian Textile Association (API) has called on the government to further regulate imports, as cheap imported textile products continue to flood the market, hitting the domestic industry with losses.
API chairman Ade Sudrajat said on Friday that the domestic market was expected to continue to be flooded with imported products in the next two to three years.
“To protect the domestic market, imported textile products have to be managed; so does the illegal smuggling of used clothes,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Ade said the government could control the wave of textile imports, primarily from China, by setting a reference price.
(Read also:Collaboration sought to rejuvenate textile industry)
Based Industry Ministry data, the textile industry experienced a loss of Rp 30 trillion (US$2.2 billion) per year due to rampant illegal smuggling.
Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono, the ministry's director general for chemicals, textile and miscellaneous industry, said it would collaborate with the Trade Ministry and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise to curb illegal imports.
“The utilization of the textile's upstream industry currently stands at 50 to 60 percent. Thus, there should be a new policy to support the industry,” he said, explaining that the government aimed to create a new regulation to control textile imports.
(win/jun)
