Dumping charges on textiles groundless

Dumping charges on textiles groundless

JAKARTA (JP): Dumping charges launched by European countries
on Indonesian textile producers are groundless and are a means of
protectionism, an official of the Indonesian Textile Association
(API) said yesterday.

"Dumping charges from importing countries are often harassment
of their trade relationship with exporting countries," API's
Deputy Chairman Chamroel Djafri told The Jakarta Post.

Commenting on a report that the European Commission began
dumping inquiries on Monday into the European Union's (EU)
polyester yarn imports from Thailand, Indonesia and India,
Chamroel said that importing countries often complain to
exporting countries without reason just to harass them.

The commission's action, detailed in the EU's Official
Journal, followed a complaint by the Comite International de la
Rayonne et des Fibers Synthetiques (CIRFS) on behalf of certain
EU producers of polyester filament yarns.

Chamroel said when the EU declares dumping charges on foreign
textile producers, its importers will automatically halt buying
products from those countries because they do not to pay anti-
dumping duties set by their governments. Such duties, therefore,
will cause decline in imports from those countries.

Acceptance

He said dumping charges will be accepted by the European
Commission if they are filed by no less than 40 percent of the
EU's member countries and if the charged imports account for more
than one percent of the charging countries' total imports of
certain products.

He said sanctions will only be applied to a country which
sells a product to an EU member at prices higher than the
country's domestic price or higher than the price of the same
product sold to other countries.

He said all that Indonesia can do now is wait for the result
of the investigation by the European Commission. "We will then
hire a lawyer to defend us at the European Commission forum,"
Chamroel said.

If Indonesia is not proven to have dumped, the European
Commission will then have to recommend the cancellation of the
charges, he said.

"If the council of ministers of the EU countries declaring the
charges insist on continuing the investigation, we can appeal to
the Court of Justice in the European Union," he said.

Chamroel said Indonesia has asked the European Commission to
review the charges because during their investigation, there was
only one Indonesian firm which did not respond to questionnaires
from the European Commission. (02/yns)