Only 30% of Chinese imports to Indonesia registered under FTA

Indonesia’s Directorate General for Customs and Excise said Tuesday only 30 percent of goods imported from China were registered under the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) based on data gathered in the first two months of this year, reported Jakarta Post.

The FTA has been fully implemented since Jan. 1.

Susiwijono, director for the information unit at the directorate general, told The Jakarta Post that the data indicated most importers were still reluctant to follow through the necessary procedures.

The reluctance, he said, might stem from the fact that some of the trade incentives under the FTA were not very attractive.

“Take computer and accessories. The import taxes for these types of products have been scrapped since 2005. Therefore, there is no reason to include them in the new trade deal,” he said on the sidelines of a seminar held by Indonesian Computer Entrepreneurs Association (Apkomindo) on Tuesday.

In the last two months, Susiwijono said, imports of Chinese products including computers and accessories drastically decreased, negating worries that the implementation of the ACFTA was going to severely impact the computer industry as feared by domestic producers.

Nevertheless, he said, the FTA could have a negative impact on other types of electronic products.

He said that last year, the country’s imports from China reached 39.6 trillion rupiah ($4.4 billion), comprising 4.1 trillion rupiah for electronic products (10.25 percent of the total imports), 3.7 trillion rupiah for steel (9.39 percent), 232.9 billion rupiah for clothing (0.59 percent), 145.4 billion rupiah for footwear (0.37 percent), 144.3 billion rupiah for toys (0.36 percent), 129 billion rupiah for food and beverages, and 31.2 trillion rupiah for others (78.72 percent).

The government, Susiwijono said, is concerned about Chinese electronic products due to their larger proportion than other commodities.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said non-oil-and-gas imports from China surged by 55 percent to $2.79 billion in the first two months of 2010, from $1.8 billion in the corresponding period last year.

According to BPS data, non-oil-and-gas goods from China topped Indonesia’s imports, contributing 18.58 percent of the total non-oil-and-gas imports.

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