The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (MenKopUKM) Teten Masduki said that based on data analysis from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the average potential value of illegal (unrecorded) clothing imports in the last five years has reached nearly IDR 100 trillion per year and has made the textile and textile product (TPT) industry ) locally languish. “Our local clothing industry has been hit hard by the entry of these illegally imported clothes. Imagine the portion that fills 31 percent of our domestic market. Meanwhile, imported clothing products from China accounted for 17.4 percent," said MenKopUKM Teten Masduki, in Jakarta, Tuesday (28/3/2023).

Minister Teten explained that based on BPS data, the potential value of illegal clothing imports in 2018 reached IDR 89.37 trillion.

The following year it reached IDR 89.06 trillion and jumped in 2020 to reach IDR 110.28 trillion. Then in 2021 and 2022 it will reach IDR 103.68 trillion and IDR 104.41 trillion respectively. In fact, according to MenKopUKM, this illegal clothing import activity threatens around 533,217 micro and small industry players in the clothing sector, whose number of players has been on a downward trend in the last three years.

"The number of micro and small industry players in the apparel sector in 2019 and 2020 is 613,668 and 591,390 respectively. Meanwhile, the number of workers absorbed in the industry as of 2021 reached 999,480 people. With the import of illegal clothing, it will certainly hit our local clothing industry which is currently in decline," said MenKopUKM.

Minister Teten also added that currently the government will issue and eradicate illegally imported clothing products.

"Currently the government's focus is on controlling and eradicating rogue importers who have been playing in the illegal industry," said Minister Teten. Meanwhile for the affected used clothing traders, KemenKopUKM has opened a complaint hotline 1500-587 or via WhatsApp 08111451587.

"From the complaint data that has been received, on average they ask for a business solution. So, we will facilitate their request to meet with local fashion brands," said Teten.

KemenKopUKM has also prepared a superior program that is suitable for traders and producers of domestic textile products as a business solution. For example, supporting the Proud Made in Indonesia National Movement, forming a fashion business cluster, pushing Indonesia to become the world's modest (Muslim) fashion hub, setting up a Joint Production House for leather products, R&D Center at Smesco Lab, and KUR Financing.

Furthermore, KemenKopUKM also continues to coordinate with the Ministry of Trade in order to support the recovery of the health of the domestic TPT industry. In addition to eradicating used clothing import activities, these two agencies are also working on non-tariff restrictions for imported TPT products.