The government will place restrictions or restrictions on imports. This was a follow-up to the Indonesian Textile Association (API) which noted that unrecorded imports (imports) of textile products reached 31 percent. "I have already mentioned about unrecorded imports reaching 31 percent, including footwear. So in total with official imports 43 percent are legal imports of footwear and clothing, then we really need to follow up on this 31 percent unrecorded," said Teten in a joint press conference Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan at the office of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM), Monday (27/3/2023).

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that Indonesia is still considered weak in protecting the domestic market from imported legal and illegal products. Therefore, the government will tighten control over goods entering Indonesia. This is because imported products can kill domestic products and dominate the domestic market.

"There must be a restriction like I said earlier to the Minister of Trade [Zulhas] we need to set it up. We must not let our market be so easily entered by them," he said. Teten added that several countries had already imposed restrictions even though they had entered into free trade. He gave an example such as palm oil products in Indonesia hampered by various environmental issues.

"Even though all countries enter free trade, there are efforts to place restrictions. The restriction is in the interest of protecting the domestic market," he said.

Furthermore, he gave examples of several European countries for Indonesian MSMEs to enter their market they must meet various strict requirements. This is to ensure that their domestic products are not threatened by imported products.

"In America there are 21 certificates and there are 3 certificates that must be reviewed every 6 months so that our MSMEs can enter their market, meaning that all countries protect their markets," he explained.

Regarding the restriction, Teten said that his party would coordinate further with the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Finance and Customs. Meanwhile, Teten Masduki said, illegally importing textiles into Indonesia is considered to make local textile cloth producers unable to compete.

"When illegal or imported fabrics enter here, our local producers will be disrupted or even the quality will be inferior to imported ones," said Teten.

Apart from that, Teten said the textile association was helped thanks to domestic textile products. This is because the textile association has succeeded in absorbing domestic textile products to be used as materials by MSME fashion material producers.

"So, even though they order or spend a little, they feel saved," he said.