‘Stop Illegal Imports’ – Indonesian Textile Body To Govt

The Association of Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers (APSYFI) has claimed that the large scale illegal import of textiles and garments was ruining the domestic industry.

The association has requested the government to put an end on these illegal imports and save the industry, which is already reeling from impact of global slowdown.

By presenting statistical data, the Chairman of APSYFI, Redma Wirawasta said there was a large gap between two data’s that the association has collected.

He said there was a large gap in import data between data of the International Trade Center (ITC), whose data came from the Custom Office of China and the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

According to Wirawasta, ITC data informs that China’s textile and garment exports to Indonesia in 2022 reached $6.50 billion, while data from BPS totaled to $3.55 billion.

He pointed out the gap of $2.95 billion is the extent of illegal textile and clothing imports into Indonesia from China.

“The government is losing out on earnings from customs duties and since these textile and garments were sold at cheap market rates, the domestic industry too is impacted,” Wirawasta added.

Several companies in the Indonesian textile and clothing industry have closed down or are running at partial capacities, which have thrown thousands of workers out of their jobs.

Wirawasta requested the government to bring to a standstill such illegal imports of textiles and garments and save the domestic industry.