Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said Indonesia's export and import performance was constrained by high logistics costs due to the trade war at the international market level during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Due to the intensity of the recent trade war, Lutfi said domestic exporters were flooded with orders from several countries. A number of products such as garments, clothing, electronics to footwear experienced a significant increase in exports.
"We look at China, because of this trade war their exports have dropped by 25 percent to the United States because of high taxes. If we get half of the 25 percent, it can increase the capacity of the domestic industry," said Lutfi.
On the other hand, Lutfi explained that domestic exporters are experiencing a shortage of containers due to the high demand for exports in the midst of the momentum of the trade war. He admitted that Indonesian exporters lacked 5,000 containers every month to fulfill orders from foreign importers.
“There are no containers but the price of shipping abroad is very expensive. Imagine, one container to the United States could reach US$10,000 to US$15,000, whereas previously it was US$2,000,” he said.
Previously, the Association of Indonesian Export Companies (GPEI) and the Indonesian Sea Transportation Service User Council (Depalindo) urged President Joko Widodo to instruct the relevant Ministries to immediately deal with cases of container shortages which have resulted in rising ocean freight rates.
GPEI Secretary General Toto Dirgantoro explained that the skyrocketing ocean freight amidst the scarcity of containers was out of control because it had reached 500 percent in almost all major shipping routes. The increase in sea logistics, he admits, has clearly hampered national exports, which are currently being stretched.
“We ask governments such as India and Thailand and others to intervene, we also have the Business Competition Supervisory Commission [KPPU]. But the government must also intervene. We hope that the government can also invite liners like India, they provide sanctions, they must be able to provide a minimum number of containers, otherwise the sailing permit does not come out," he said.
Toto, who is also the general chairman of Depalindo, explained that he has coordinated with other countries that are members of the Asia, Europe and America shipping councils in conveying this issue to the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
Even the US President will also conduct an investigation related to business competition because it is related to container tariffs that burden the perpetrators.
