RI importers still hesitant to buy Australian goods

RI importers still hesitant to buy Australian goods

JAKARTA (JP): A significant number of Indonesian importers are
still boycotting Australian commodities due to ill feeling
between the two countries relating to the East Timor issue.

The chairman of the Indonesian Importers Association (GINSI),
Amirudin Saud said in his office on Wednesday the volume of
imports from Australia had been severely affected by the East
Timor crisis.

"Importers, I think, will continue to shun Australian goods
and switch to imports from other countries until John Howard is
no longer prime minister," Amirudin said.

Trade relations between the two countries soured following
Australia's reaction over what Indonesia considered domestic
affairs in its former province of East Timor.

Australian labor unions refused to unload goods shipped from
Indonesia at Australian ports in protest at what they claimed was
the mishandling of the East Timor problem by the Indonesian
government.

In reply, Indonesian importers said they would stop importing
from Australia and find alternative countries for commodities
such as cotton, sugar, wheat flour and meat which they previously
imported from Australia.

Amirudin said total imports from Australia this year would not
reach 50 percent of last year.

Indonesia imported US$1.76 billion worth of goods from
Australia and exported $1.53 billion to the country in 1998.

Amirudin also said Indonesian importers had gradually regained
trust from their overseas suppliers since the election of the new
president Abdurrahman Wahid.

"We have even had importers who imported goods from their
suppliers abroad without a letter of credit," he said. "This
shows the return of foreign exporters' confidence in Indonesian
importers."

Amirudin also hailed the government's move requiring importers
to renew their identification numbers every five years.

Through a ministerial decree issued in October, the government
requires importers to reregister their identification numbers
every five years and submit a yearly report on their realized
imports to the Department of Industry and Trade.

Amirudin said previously importers did not need to extend
their identification numbers because they were valid for life.

But now he said the reregistration requirement would help the
government tackle the problem of importers trying to avoid tax
payment by putting fake addresses on their identification papers.

He acknowledged the government had lost at least Rp 500
billion (US$71 million) since 1996 from failing to collect import
taxes due to fake addresses. (udi)