Anticipating Illegal Goods, Coordinating Minister For SMEs Suggests RI To Have Special Ports For Imports

Menkop UKM Teten Masduki (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki proposed that Indonesia have a special port for imported goods, especially textile products and clothing. The goal is to facilitate supervision in anticipation of smuggling illegal goods.

Teten said, ports that can be used at Sorong Port, Papua. With imported products entering through Eastern Indonesia, and not directly to Java Island, local products on the island of Java can still compete.

That way, said Teten, MSME products can still be competitive with the selling price of imported products.

"I have proposed to the Minister of Trade yesterday, so that imported products may not go directly to the market in Java. So the anchoring of imported products, say in Sorong, Jayapura, so that later we can still be competitive with local products," he said in an official statement, Wednesday, March 29.

Teten berharap ada restriksi terhadap produk impor, karena pasar luar juga memberlakukan restriksi terhadap produk impornya untuk memperkuat produk lokal mereka.

"We are too loose. I suggest to the Trade Minister, including those who import legal, we also ask for restriction. Our goods out there are also heavily hampered. One of them is environmental issues, and so on," he said.

The point, said Teten, is not too many entrances for imported products. So, it will be easier to control.

"So, if anyone wants to enter another port, it can be ascertained that it is illegal," he said.

Teten said, it must be admitted that China has raw materials for all textile products and finished clothes. And Indonesia tends to have difficulty competing with their products.

"But, we can do such restrictions, to protect local products," he said.

Unrecorded imports (including illegal imports of clothing and footwear), said Teten, the amount is very large, an average of 31 percent of the total domestic market, or not very much different from legal imports. In 2020, unrecorded imports were greater, namely Rp. 110.288 trillion compared to legal imports of Rp. 104.6 trillion.

"The existence of unrecorded imports has disrupted domestic production which has tended to decline since 2019 and has not affected imports of legal clothing, including China, which has continued to increase since 2020," he said.