JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia will reinstate plans to protect domestic industries and impose safeguard tariffs of 100% to 200% on imports ranging from footwear to ceramics, its trade minister said on Wednesday.
The planned import tariffs will average more than 100 percent, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan told reporters on Friday. “If we get flooded with (imports), our small and medium-sized businesses could go bankrupt.”
Southeast Asia’s largest economy issued regulations late last year to tighten scrutiny of more than 3,000 imported products, ranging from food ingredients to electronics and chemicals.
But the restrictions were rolled back after domestic industries argued they were disrupting the flow of imported inputs that domestic industries needed.
Zulkifli said the tariffs would be imposed soon and could affect imports of footwear, clothing, textiles, cosmetics and ceramics.
Indonesia’s Trade Security Committee is investigating to determine the tariff rates, Budi Santoso, a senior official at Indonesia’s Trade Ministry, said on Saturday.
According to data from the Statistics Bureau, Indonesia mainly imports garments and clothing accessories from China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.