API complains of rampant quota trading<\/p>\n
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Textile Association (API) urged the Ministry of
\nIndustry and Trade to disclose the name of companies holding
\ntextile export quotas for the U.S. market amid strong suspicions
\nthat the quotas were mostly controlled by brokers.<\/p>\n
\"We have asked the director general of international trade at
\nthe ministry to disclose this ... but there has been no
\nresponse,\" Natsir Mansyur, an executive of the association, told
\nThe Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He made the comment as textile firms were surprised to learn
\nthat 70 percent of the quotas for trouser and jeans products for
\nthe U.S. export market had already been filled during the first
\nfour months of this year, while there had been no significant
\nincrease in the production of the products among companies here.<\/p>\n
\"This is an unusual situation because so far we have not seen
\na sharp increase in the production of trousers in this country,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Natsir said that the association was informed by the ministry
\nthat 21 textile firms had fulfilled 70 percent of the export
\nquota, or exported the equivalent of 1.6 million dozen trousers
\nand jeans.<\/p>\n
The export quotas for these products are known as the 347 and
\n348 quota categories respectively.<\/p>\n
By comparison, the fulfillment of the 347 and 348 categories
\nduring the same period last year was only around 23 percent.<\/p>\n
Trading of export quotas by brokers has been rampant in the
\npast, forcing real textile exporters to pay a hefty price to
\nallow them to export their products particularly to the U.S.
\nmarket, one of the country's major export destinations.<\/p>\n
Natsir said that quotas were now being sold at around US$30
\nfor every dozen export items, compared to only between $5 and $8
\npreviously.<\/p>\n
He said that at such a high price, textile firms were no
\nlonger be able to make sufficient profits in exporting their
\nproducts.<\/p>\n
He also feared that the brokers were selling the quotas to
\nother countries via transshipment arrangements.<\/p>\n
\"We are afraid that the sharp rise in quota fulfillment is
\nmainly due to transshipment practices where all the (export)
\ndocumentation is produced in Indonesia but the trousers come from
\nother countries,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Natsir said that the trading of quotas would hamper the growth
\nof the country's textile exports.<\/p>\n
The U.S., Europe and Japan account for about 45 percent of
\nIndonesia's textile exports, while the so called \"non-quota
\ncountries\", that is the countries of the Middle East, Latin
\nAmerica and Africa, take the remaining 55 percent.<\/p>\n
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that the
\nexport of textiles and textile products reached $7.6 billion last
\nyear compared to $8.2 billion in 2000.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/api-complains-of-rampant-quota-trading-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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