This step was taken to respond to complaints from associations and the public due to the high number of imported goods in traditional markets and increased sales of non-domestic goods in e-commerce, he noted.
"Imported goods will certainly disrupt the market share of domestic products. The illegal imports of used clothing have also increased and impacted layoffs in the textile industry sector," he remarked after attending a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.
Hence, the government will issue several regulations to tighten imports of certain commodities, including children's toys, electronics, footwear, cosmetics, textile, traditional medicines and health supplements, clothes, and bags, he stated.
Hartarto noted that the government has also provided supervision to importers regarding the enforcement of post-border regulations to the border and deepened entrance regulation at the border to maintain service level agreements with no additional dwelling time.
The supervision of prohibited and/or restricted goods at the border is carried out by customs officers in the customs area, while post-border supervision is conducted after the goods leave the customs area and have circulated in the community, which is supervised by the relevant ministry and institution, he explained.
He stated that Indonesia has the second-best dwelling time after Singapore. The time is calculated from the container's unloading until the goods leave the port, which takes approximately 3.2 days.
Changing the post-border policy to a border policy would be followed by improvements to regulations from the relevant ministries and institutions, he added.
He said that changes and improvements to regulations will soon be implemented by related ministries and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
"President Joko Widodo wants the regulations to be immediately revised within two weeks," Hartarto stated.
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Translator: Yashinta Difa P, Resinta S
Editor: Anton Santoso
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