Import of Salt: Needs or Interest

Salt is an important commodity in the life of a country including Indonesia. Indonesian salt production has not met the needs, so the government issued import policies as stated in the Regulation of Minister of Trade No. 125 / M-DAG / PER / 12/2015 concerning Provisions on the Import of Salt, Protection of Salt Farmers. The policy was reinforced by Law Number 7 of 2016 concerning Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Cultivators and Salt Farmers. In 2018 based on Government Regulation Number 9 of 2018 concerning the Procedures for Controlling the Import of Fisheries Commodities and Salt Commodities as Raw Materials and Assisting Materials, industrial salt import permits are set at 2,370,054.45 tons. Pamekasan Regency is one of the saltproducing centers in Madura region and has 26,800 tons of imported salt quota. These conditions lead to rejection because the people's salt supply for the industry is sufficient. Based on secondary data with qualitative descriptive method, this study shows that the implementation of Government Regulation Number 9 Year 2018 does not provide protection and welfare for salt farmers, because it causes the people's salt prices to fall even not absorbed to the maximum. The implementation of imported salt distribution should be based on the data of salt needs in each region, so that it can be determined how much import salt quota must be fulfilled. Keywords—Salt Import, Welfare, Protection, Interest.