In what can be termed as a setback for the Bangladesh apparel industry, Indonesia recently imposed safeguard duty on 134 types of garment products.
This was underlined in media reports, which maintained a maximum of Taka 956 per piece safeguard duty has been imposed by Indonesia on apparel imports and further added that on 23 February, the Indonesian Committee on Safeguards of the Trade Ministry issued a notification of the proposal.
The proposal of safeguard measures, which is in the form of specific duty on the products irrespective of exporting countries, will, reportedly, come into effect subsequent to publication of the decree of Indonesia’s Finance Ministry even as Bangladesh is expected to hit the hardest, even if the duty is imposed unilaterally, as Bangladesh, reportedly, already faces up to 25 per cent duty on export of apparel products to Indonesia.
As per exporters and trade officials, imposition of the safeguard duty, in such a scenario, will only worsen Bangladesh’s export competitiveness — Bangladesh in the last fiscal year 2019-2020 exported readymade garment products worth US $ 27.91 million to Indonesia, which is more than 54 per cent of the country’s total export worth US $ 51.42 million to Indonesia — in Indonesia.
