The Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita responded to foreign media reports about the import of used shoes which has recently gone viral. He said the rampant illegal import of used shoes had indeed hampered the growth of the domestic footwear industry. "As can be seen in the video that was investigated by a journalist in Singapore, it was revealed that used shoes from that country that were donated by their owners to the sustainability project ended up in flea markets in Indonesia. The practice of illegally importing used shoes must be stopped because it has an impact on bad for the domestic footwear industry," said Agus Gumiwang in an official statement, Monday (6/3/2023).
The video in question contains a report about dismantling a trail of used shoes that end up at a flea market in Indonesia. In fact, the shoes were originally collected as donated shoes.
"It was stated that these shoes would be recycled to become the basis for playgrounds and running tracks. A journalist installed a tracking device on some of the shoes he donated. However, the results of his tracking showed that these shoes were sold in used shoe sales centers in Batam and Jakarta. ," said the Minister of Industry.
"This incident shows that the illegal import of used shoes is carried out in an organized manner and misuses social projects. The Ministry of Industry (Ministry of Industry) cannot act alone to combat this illegal import activity. It needs support from parties who have the authority to strictly enforce the rules," he said.
Previously, on 25 February 2023, Reuters reported that the "journey" of used shoes, which was originally for donations, ended up at a flea market in Indonesia. The shoes were donated in July 2022
This was revealed because Reuters had previously "planted" the tracker in 11 markets for the shoes to be donated. It was revealed that most of the shoes were actually exported.
As a result, the company that started the donation program for recycling used shoes promised to carry out an investigation.
Tightened Supervision
For this reason, said the Minister of Industry, the Ministry of Industry is coordinating with the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy regarding the issue of illegal imports and increasing supervision of imported goods down to the smallest port. Also coordinating with the Ministry of Trade in the context of drafting limited bans (lartas) for textiles and textile products (TPT).
Also, proposing the addition of an article on the obligation for business actors to include registration numbers for Security, Safety, Health and Environment (K3L) goods and Goods Registration Numbers (NPB) or SNI (Indonesian National Standards) on their electronic trading displays for TPT products and footwear that are required Minister of Trade Regulation No 26/2021.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Industry proposed that imports of footwear products be carried out (supervision) at the border and proposed the provision of government-borne import duties (BMDTP) incentives for imports of raw materials and auxiliary materials for local brand footwear products.
He added that the domestic footwear industry is still experiencing contractions. This can be seen from the results of the Industrial Confidence Index (IKI) survey in February 2023.
Apart from illegal imports, said the Minister of Industry, the contraction in the footwear industry was also due to a decline in exports due to the lack of improvement in global demand which was depressed by the effects of inflation and recession. On the other hand, the domestic market has not been able to boost footwear consumption growth.
