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Bapanas defends Prabowo’s order to remove import quotas
The National Food Agency (Bapanas) has defended President Prabowo Subianto’s instruction to remove import quotas, arguing the move will not hurt domestic producers.
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Heading home: A farmer walks among rice fields in Brebes regency, Central Java. (Courtesy of Marius Moragues/-)
T
he National Food Agency (Bapanas) has defended President Prabowo Subianto’s instruction to remove import quotas, arguing that the move will not hurt domestic producers.
Bapanas head Arief Prasetyo Adi said on Thursday that the intention behind the removal was to allow imports by more parties, as opposed to a select few with the quotas in place.
“The only question is who’s allowed to import, [that’s the point brought up] the other day. The intention is to open up [imports] as widely as possible, not just for one or two companies. That’s what Pak President meant,” Arief was quoted as saying by Bisnis.
He explained that Prabowo ultimately wanted to ease the importation of goods essential to the livelihood of the general public while maintaining focus on the commodity balance scheme put in place in 2022 to protect domestic farmers and other commodity producers.
The policy focuses on collecting data with the aim of allowing for sufficient imports to meet domestic needs for several commodities while preventing excessive imports that could hurt domestic producers.
In light of looming higher tariffs from the United States, Prabowo said he had made it his “mission” to deregulate the economy and eliminate “convoluted” business bureaucracy.
“Throw away all the regulations that don’t make sense. Make it easy! Make business processes easy!” Prabowo said in front of government officials, businesspeople, economists and journalists at a public economic forum on Tuesday.
