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More than half of imported items are illegal

Jakarta Post - October 20, 2015

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Jakarta – Over 50 percent of textile, electronic, toy and food imports are illegal, industry players say.

Indonesian Textile Association (API) supervisory board chairman Benny Soetrisno said 60 percent of textile imports in the Indonesian market were illegal, while Rachmat Gobel, former trade minister as well as owner of the Panasonic Gobel Group, said that overall import items accounted for over 50 percent of what was traded on the market.

For toys and food, for instance, illegal imported products amount to 63 percent of total traded goods. "For electronics [illegal imports] amount to 50 to 60 percent," Gobel said in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by Kontan.co.id.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo wants to root out illegal imports to protect domestic industry, with recent involvement in raids and meetings with representatives from the Finance Ministry's customs and excise directorate general, Attorney General's Office and the National Police.

But fighting against illegal imports went beyond these three institutions, according to Rahmat and Benny. Benny said the government must label all imported items.

Labeling needs to be done to ensure the country of origin of the imported products. Apart from that, the government had to also require all imported items to use Indonesian language information on the packaging, Benny added.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/20/economy-brief-more-half-imported-items-are-illegal.html.