Antara, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office discovered the distribution of imported products using domestic labels or brands in a number of shopping centers.

"We've found several commodities which are imported but use domestic labels or brands, including medical equipment, agricultural equipment, textiles, iron or steel, as well as salt and other goods," said the AGO's head of the legal information center, Agung Ketut Sumedana, in his statement, Monday, March 28.

The distribution of such products, he argued, could suppress the prices of the domestic commodity so that they could not compete with imported goods labeled as local products.

"So locally-made products cannot be sold in the domestic market. This can hamper or disrupt economic growth, especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic," Ketut added.

These findings were the result of the data search as ordered by the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) through the Director of Investigation Unit. The data search aimed at exploring which foreign goods were sold domestically by using labels or brands of domestic products.

"This is in order to protect local products," said Ketut Sumedana.

The AGO's team, which was established on Friday, March 25, has then launched the data search activities in various regions, including Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, and East Java.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1575984/ago-detects-imported-goods-labeled-as-local-in-market