The government will impose restrictions or restrictions on imported goods. Currently, the Ministry of Trade (Ministry of Trade) and the Ministry of Industry (Ministry of Industry) are working on non-tariff restrictions for imported textiles and textile products (TPT). The Indonesian Textile Association (API) supports the government's move. API assesses that one of the restrictions needed to protect the domestic market is the application of safeguards. Safeguards are security measures taken by the government to recover serious losses or prevent the threat of serious losses to the domestic industry, due to a surge in imported goods of the same type or goods that are directly competitive.

API Executive Director Danang said that safeguard measures only need to be applied to certain harmonized system (HS) codes. No need for all HS codes. "That's why we expect the government to issue safeguards for certain HS codes. The reason is because the textile industry or raw materials come to us at strange prices, which I call predatory pricing," said Danang Girindrawardana to journalists in Jakarta, Wednesday (29/3/2023) .

According to him, it is impossible for a country or industry to produce certain HS code goods at very low prices compared to other countries. Therefore, he said, it is possible that this was due to dumping practices so that protection had to be carried out in the form of a safeguard or anti-dumping.

"However, for the industry of certain materials with no indication of dumping, we are not proposing safeguards. Let it be natural competition, there is no problem," he emphasized.

He said, there are about 60 HS codes in the TPT industry, covering wool, cloth, and so on. "There are about 60 HS codes that we have to think about, there are lots of types," said Danang.

Regarding the trend of buying and selling used imported clothes, API assesses the thrifting business as having a domino effect. It is not only the textile industry that is affected, but also the small and medium industries (IKM), garment factories and banks.

"The (effect) financially is not too big, but we can see the domino effect," said Danang. He continued, IKM or UKM could die because they could not compete with various used imported goods that entered the country. The problem is, the value of these goods is too cheap so it's hard to compete with. If SMEs cannot compete, he continued, they can no longer buy textiles from the textile industry.

"The textile industry is definitely a big industry, if these big ones can't sell to SMEs, they will lose the market. That will die too," said Danang.

If the textile industry dies, he continued, the big garment industry dies too. Then it can cause banks to collapse or go bankrupt, because banks are channeling credit to various levels in the textile and garment industry.

"This is a cycle. It's a dangerous link if the thrifting situation is allowed to become a culture of cheap fashion, people don't care anymore about the risk of the impact on the nation," he said.

Danang continued, actually API's concern about the thrifting business has been felt since many years ago. In fact, six months ago, associations often issued notifications to the government, both the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry, and law enforcement.

He said the activity clearly violated the import process. It's just that, he said, there is no problem with the trading process from SMEs to buyers. "What we see as a big problem is the importation. Our concern is that if the imports are getting bigger and bigger, this will be a big problem," he said.

Acting Director General of the Chemical Pharmaceutical and Textile Industry (IKFT) of the Ministry of Industry Ignatius Warsito said the government continues to take action against the practice of importing used clothing. "We really support prosecutions and law enforcement so that they can set a good example for all of us," he said.

Currently, the government is trying to minimize the buying and selling of imported used clothes in order to promote domestic products. The Ministry of Industry also hopes that in the future there will be no more thrifting activities in Indonesia.