Few RI exports benefit from GSP

Few RI exports benefit from GSP

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's exporters have not fully benefited
from the United States' General System of Preferences (GSP)
facilities, the director general of foreign trade, Djoko
Moeljono, has said.

Djoko said yesterday the types of export commodities that suit
the GSP facilities were limited and most Indonesian commodities
could not meet the requirements.

"Up to 1996, the types of commodities that used the facilities
were dominated only by certain products, such as electronics and
telecommunications equipment, wooden furniture and rubber
gloves," he said in his speech at the opening of a workshop on
the use of GSP facilities in Indonesia.

According to the Directorate General of International Trade,
export products from Indonesia to the United States which used
the GSP reached US$1.86 billion in 1996, 24.3 percent of the
total export value to the U.S.

From January to October 1997, the value of exports to the U.S.
using the GSP was $1.5 billion, or 23.5 percent of total exports
to the country.

Djoko said the amount was much lower than export's from
Malaysia, about $4.1 billion, which used the same facilities in
1996; Thailand, $2.3 billion; and Brazil, $1.9 billion.

Exports of certain commodities from developing countries to
the U.S. under the GSP facilities are exempted from customs
duties.

Similar facilities are provided by European countries but they
only reduce the import tariffs, instead of eliminating them.

There are about 192 items that can be exported from Indonesia
using the facilities, including food products, plastic goods and
jewelry.

Djoko said Indonesia's exporters have also not fully used the
opportunities to request for additional products which could
receive the facilities.

They had also not fully used the opportunity to extend the GSP
for products which had reached the "competitive needs limits", he
said.

Djoko said agribusiness commodities had good potentials for
export to the U.S., especially during the monetary crisis.

He said he expected the country would continue to receive the
GSP facilities from the U.S. after the program expires next June
30.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that
Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports to the U.S. in the first half
of 1997 reached $3.31 billion, up from $2.96 billion in the same
period for 1996. (das)