Indonesia rejects U.S. claim over China transshipment route

The Indonesian government rejected U.S. allegations that Indonesia is being used as a transshipment route for goods from China to evade tariffs into the U.S. market. Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the claims in the White House report titled The Great Transshipment Scam were not true and that Indonesia was never involved in its preparation. The report placed Indonesia in Tier 2 alongside Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Turki and Brasil. Airlangga pointed to the mention of the Bekasi-Batam route in the document. He said the Batam and Bekasi industrial areas have developed since the 1990s and are dominated by manufacturing. He also said domestic plastic raw materials are supplied by producers such as Chandra Asri and Lotte Chemical, while most plastic packaging products are used in the domestic market or exported to nearby countries, not to the U.S.