JAKARTA - The Malaysian government has stopped investigating safeguards for Indonesian ceramic products starting last week (11/1) after going through an investigation since September 13, 2020. This was conveyed by Muhammad Lutfi, the Indonesian Minister of Trade in a press release quoted on Tuesday (19/1).
He conveyed that the trade authorities in Malaysia considered three reasons in stopping the investigation of Indonesian ceramic safeguards, among others, there was no absolute increase in import volume since the investigation, the increase in import volume on Malaysian ceramic production could not be ascertained, and no relation was found between the increase in imports and losses suffered by Malaysian ceramic industry. "The investigation was stopped only four months after the Malaysian trade authorities conducted investigation," he said.
The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) noted that the Indonesian ceramic industry had twice escaped the efforts to apply Safeguard Measure Import Duty (BMTP) from trading partner countries in the past year, namely, Malaysia and the Philippines. "The decision by the Malaysian trade authority is an opportunity for ceramic producers to increase exports to Malaysia," said Lutfi.
Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, Malaysian Ceramic Group filed an objection to the import of ceramic products from Indonesia. The petition was then followed up by the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) by claiming that a surge in ceramics was threatening Malaysian ceramic production. (LK/LM)