January 19, 2005

Indonesia Requests For Cut In Shrimp Import Duties

The Indonesian government has requested the United States and the European Union (EU) for import duty facility on its shrimp and tuna fish.

According to Director General for Capacity Expansion and Marketing at the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry Sumpeno Putro, the United States and EU recently offered trade facility for tsunami hit countries in Asia in the form of a cut in import duties.

Indonesia is the hardest hit by the Dec 26 quake triggered tsunami claiming more than 10,000 lives in Aceh and western coastal areast of North Sumatra.

Sumpeno said Indonesia hopes the United States will reduce the import duties on its shrimp and tuna fish to a range of 0 per cent to 5 per cent from a range of 5 per cent to 35 per cent now.

The European Union has already imposed the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facility cutting the import duties to 4.2 per cent on frozen shrimp and 7 per cent on frozen boiled shrimp to be effective until December 2005.

Indonesia wants the GSP facility extended until 2010, Sumpeno said.