Indonesia and Bangladesh are in the negotiation stage of the Indonesia-Bangladesh Preferential Trade Agreement (IB-PTA). In this agreement, there are several leading Indonesian commodities that will enter the Bangladesh market, one of which is palm oil (CPO). However, Indonesia must also prepare for the entry of Bangladeshi products, one of which is textiles. Suddenly, the textile garment industry players rejected the plan. The reason is, Bangladesh is one of the countries with the strongest textile industry in the world and has the potential to take over the domestic textile market.

Chairman of the Indonesian Filament Yarn and Fiber Producers Association (APSyFI), Redma Gita Wirawasta even revealed that there was already pressure for the industry to give up this trade agreement.

"We see that there is pressure being put on us so that we are willing to give up so that these clothes are opened for Bangladesh. We are against it if we are told to open it, don't we have to sacrifice, for whose sake? CPO, we don't want it. We are small people, small convection garments are sacrificed for the sake of a handful of groups," he said at a press conference, Tuesday (8/3/22).

Based on data from Trademap, the export of textile products with the code HS61-52 Bangladesh ranks second after China, the value reaches US$ 36.13 billion, while Indonesia is only 1/6, which is US$ 6.98 billion.

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) David Leonardi said that comparatively, production costs in Bangladesh are far more competitive in terms of wages and labor regulations, energy and logistics costs and its strategic location.

"Bangladesh garment exports are 6 times higher than Indonesian garment exports, so we can see how strong their garment industry is," he said.

The Bandung Convection Entrepreneurs Association (IPKB) is concerned that this IB-PTA could re-damage the domestic IKM garment market. Moreover, the condition of convection SMEs is still not recovering after the restrictions on community mobility due to Covid-19.

"If garment imports come in again, of course this will be difficult for IKM. People will prefer cheap imported products compared to IKM products. They may close one by one again like at the beginning of the last pandemic," said IPKB chairman Nandi Herdiaman.a