RI would welcome Japanese textiles

RI would welcome Japanese textiles

JAKARTA (JP): Japan would be better off relocating its textile
manufacturing activities to Indonesia rather than invoking
protectionist measures against imports, Chairman of the National
Agency for Export Development Rudy Lengkong said yesterday.

"If Japan's textile industry cannot compete anymore with
developing countries, why doesn't it relocate the facilities to
developing countries like Indonesia," Lengkong told reporters
after addressing a business luncheon hosted by the Indonesian-
Netherlands Association.

Lengkong noted that Japan's textile industry might lose
competitiveness due to the sharp appreciation of the yen against
other major currencies.

Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
launched a probe late last month into certain Asian textile
imports, which may result in Japan's first curbing of imported
industrial goods.

The move was made at the request of the Japan Spinners
Association and the Japan Cotton and Stable Fiber Weavers
Association. The two associations claim they have been damaged by
a flood of imported Chinese, South Korean and Indonesian thread
as well as Chinese and Indonesian cloth, both of which are used
to manufacture shirts and other garments.

Japan's Ambassador Taizo Watanabe said here on Tuesday that
the MITI will soon conduct another study into textile imports
from Indonesia and hold talks with the parties concerned. Any
decision on the matter, he said, will be made after the study is
completed.

"If Japan considers a reduction in imports, it contradicts its
own policy of importing more products from developing countries
to reduce its huge trade surplus," Lengkong said.

Japan imported $189.9 million of textiles from Indonesia last
year, as compared to $1.66 billion from China and $586.1 million
from South Korea. (rid)