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)