Turkish import duties make Indonesian textile exports fall

03 Nov '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Indonesia is witnessing a steep decline in textile exports to Turkey after the latter imposed additional duties on such imports. The pandemic’s impact on global trade is also a reason. Between January to August this year, such exports to Turkey were down by nearly half year on year (YoY) at $168.9 million, said Marthin Kalit, secretary of Indonesia’s directorate general of foreign trade.

“This should be a concern for us, since Turkey is our sixth-biggest export destination [for textile products], after the United States, Japan, China, South Korea and Germany,” Kalit was quoted by lndonesian media reports as saying in a virtual discussion recently.

Indonesia’s overall textile exports reached only $7.03 billion over the same period, marking an annual decline of 19.92 per cent.

To back domestic industries amid the economic downturn, Turkey introduced in April additional duties of 4 to 50 per cent on textile products imported from countries with which it has no trade agreements. The duties will be in place until the end of the year.

Indonesia is still negotiating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Turkey, called the IT-CEPA. The two countries were scheduled to sit down for a fifth round of negotiations in April.

“Turkey’s market is quite challenging for Indonesian textile exporters. However, it actually has quite a big potential for our textile industry,” Kalit said.

Indonesia’s overall trade with Turkey started seeing a downward trend between 2018 and 2019, when it fell by nearly 17 per cent to $1.49 billion, according to data from Eric Nababan, the Indonesian trade attaché in Turkey.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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