Illegal Used Clothing Imports IDR 100 Trillion A Year, Get 31 Percent of the Domestic Market

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki, stated that the value of illegal (unrecorded) used clothing imports in the last five years has reached nearly IDR 100 trillion per year. This figure was obtained based on a study conducted by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

“Our local clothing industry has been hit hard by the entry of these illegally imported clothes. Imagine the portion that fills 31 percent of our domestic market. Meanwhile, imported clothing products from China account for 17.4 percent", he said on Tuesday, March 28.

Teten explained, this illegal clothing import activity threatens around 533,217 micro and small industry players in the clothing sector, whose number of players has been on a declining trend in the last three years.

"Of course this will impact the labor sector and have the potential to keep the local clothing industry under pressure", he said.

Teten added, currently the government will issue and eradicate illegally imported clothing products.

"We are focused on controlling and eradicating rogue importers who have been playing in the illegal industry", he stressed.

As a cushion, the Ministry of Cooperatives has prepared a superior program that is suitable for domestic textile product traders and producers as a business solution.

For example, supporting the Proud Made in Indonesia National Movement, establishing a fashion business cluster, pushing Indonesia to become a world modest (Muslim) fashion hub, setting up a Joint Production House for leather products, a research center, and KUR financing.

For information, the potential value of illegal clothing imports in 2018 reached IDR 89.37 trillion. The following year it reached IDR 89.06 trillion and jumped in 2020 to reach IDR 110.28 trillion. Then in 2021 and 2022 it will reach IDR 103.68 trillion and IDR 104.41 trillion respectively.

"We are strengthening coordination with the Ministry of Trade in order to support the recovery of the health of the domestic TPT industry. In addition to eradicating used clothing import activities, these two agencies are also working on non-tariff restrictions for imported TPT products", he concluded.