EC chief defends antidumping action against RI products

JAKARTA (JP): European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy defended on Friday the antidumping measures imposed on some Indonesian products, saying they were made in congruence with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

Lamy said the European Commission (EC) was not targeting Indonesia because the initiative to proceed with antidumping investigations was never made by the commission, but by the respective industries in the European Union (EU) member states.

He also denied criticism from some local industries that the antidumping measures on Indonesia's products was against the EU's commitment to helping lift Indonesia out of its worst ever crisis.

"We're not the most active antidumping gathering ... But, the fact is there was a large dumping margin found on some of Indonesia's products," he told a news conference.

He said the antidumping investigations were conducted in a transparent manner in accordance with legislation set by the WTO.

"I'm bound by the legislation," he said.

Lamy's spokesperson, Anthony Gooch, added that Indonesia had the right to respond against the antidumping sanctions.

He said any companies or countries unsatisfied with such measures imposed by other countries were allowed to bring their case to the WTO.

The Indonesian Synthetic Fiber Makers Association, whose members were charged by the commission with antidumping duties of between 8.4 percent and 15.8 percent earlier this month, plans to file suit to WTO against the commission over the sanction.

The association said the sanction, which it called baseless, would cause local producers a potential loss of about US$60 million during the first year of imposition of the duties alone.

The commission has imposed antidumping duties on at least seven Indonesia's imports to EU member states markets so far.

Indonesia's bicycles and polyester fibers were imposed with antidumping duties since 1996, polyolefin woven bags and footwear made of textile in 1997, footwear made of leather in 1998, microdisks in 1999 and recently this month the synthetic staple fibers of polyester.

According to Gooch, the commission was currently finalizing another antidumping investigation on Indonesia's polyethylene terephthalate.

He said the decision on the antidumping or countervailing measures on the products was expected to be reached in August.

Lamy said in order to avoid similar trade barriers in the future, Indonesia's exporters must comply to the requirements and legislations set by EU member states.

He said that at present many Indonesian exporters were not aware or even ignored the import requirements, especially those regarding the health, sanitary and environment aspects of the products and production processes.

Lamy is in Jakarta as part of a series of official trips to key developing countries to lobby for a new attempt to launch a round of trade talks after the failure of the Seattle WTO conference last December.

The Seattle conference broke down amid disagreement and recrimination between industrialized and developing countries over issues like agriculture and labor standards, the environment and investment.

Lamy said the commission expected Indonesia to support its plan for the new round.

He said that as a developing country, Indonesia would benefit from the round by using it to patch up differences on trade matters with industrialized countries and negotiate to make the latter eliminate as many trade barriers as possible.

Lamy is scheduled to leave for Singapore to meet Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and other ministers, hoping to persuade Singapore to use its influence to encourage other Southeast Asian countries to back the new round plan. (cst)