China lobbies RI on ceramic imports

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

China has asked Indonesia not to impose anti-dumping and safeguard sanctions on Chinese flour and ceramic tableware imports, saying the move would backfire and hurt Indonesian industry, a trade delegation said on Friday.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce's bureau of fair trade for imports and exports director Cheng Yongru said there was no urgency for Indonesia to impose safeguard sanctions on ceramic tableware imports.

"The Indonesian government has recently increased its import duties on tableware products to 30 percent from 5 percent. Now, there is no necessity to put on extra tariffs," Cheng told a press conference.

Asked whether China would retaliate if Indonesia insisted on imposing safeguard sanctions, Cheng said that the delegation had a good and friendly discussion with its Indonesian counterpart, therefore he believed the government would come up with a good and reasonable solution.

The delegation, consisting of Chinese trade officials and industry players, met with officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade, the Indonesian Trade Safeguard Committee (KPPI) and the Indonesian Anti-Dumping Committee (KADI).

China presented an argument that ceramic imports from China had not resulted in serious injury to Indonesian industry, while Chinese flour only held less than 3 percent market share.

However, representatives from the China Ceramic Industrial Association and flour producer association said that if Indonesia imposed the sanctions, they would urge their government to retaliate.

The associations threatened that they would file a petition to impose anti-dumping measures on Indonesian ceramics or on other commodities such as crude palm oil (CPO).

The government in January imposed higher tariffs of 30 percent on imported ceramic tableware from China in the expectation that it would temporarily stem surging imports.

KPPI recommended early this month that the government safeguard the industry by imposing additional tariffs for three years, as surging imports had dealt a blow to the local industry.

The recommendation is based on an investigation that showed the ceramic imports surged almost three and half times from 11,603 tons in 1999 to 40,018 tons in 2003.

KPPI started its investigation in October, in response to petitions from local industry players complaining that the industry had been losing out to cheap imports, mostly from China.

Indonesian Ceramics Industry Association (Asaki)'s foreign affairs director, Indra Kangean, claimed the industry used to employ 20,000 workers directly, but now only employed 10,000.

Meanwhile, regarding the flour dumping case, KADI is still conducting an investigation in response to local industry complaints.