he United States has excluded Indonesian-made large washing machines from the imposition of its safeguard measure, paving the way for the items to enter the world’s largest economy.
The move came after the country recently released Indonesian-produced solar panels from a 30 percent import duty.
The Trade Ministry's director general for foreign trade, Oke Nurwan, said while Indonesia is now exempt, the measure in the form of three year tariff-rate quotas would still be applied to similar products from South Korea, Vietnam and Mexico.
Safeguard measures are put in place by a country whenever there is a surge in imports that hurts its domestic industry.
Read also: Indonesian-made solar panels exempt from US tariffsOke expected that the absence of the safeguard measure would pave the way for manufacturers to sell large residential washing machines in the US.
“Even though Indonesia does not export this type of washing machine to the US, the decision to exempt it from trade safeguards is necessary to secure Indonesia’s access to export markets, particularly in the US,” he said in a statement on Friday. “This can open opportunities for investors to invest in the electronics industry to produce large capacity washing machines, both for the Indonesian market and for export.”
Indonesia’s exports of large washing machines totaled US$ 1.71 million in 2016. (kmt/lnd)
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