Enny Sri Hartati, The Economist Institute for Economic Financial Development has urged the Indonesian government to apply a harmonized tariff structure from upstream to downstream for the textile and textile products (TPT) industry.

As per Indo Textiles, this tariffs structure should include temporary trade security tariffs in the form of security or the imposition of Safeguard Measure Import Duty (BMTP). He Hartati believes, this will enable garment producers to absorb domestic raw materials more optimally while at the same time obtaining market certainty.

The implementation of this tariff structure will offer two benefits, adds Hartati.It would encourage creation of added value by boosting use of local raw materials, as well as import substitution.

Hartati says, the current import structure of the textile industry is reversed with the tariffs on the upstream and middle sides being higher from the downstream side. Such contradictory trade policies can have a huge impact on the absorption of national labor, he said Moreover, during the economic recovery, it requires a lot of jobs to fill the millions of workers who are victims of the pandemic.