RI wins antidumping dispute at WTO

RI wins antidumping dispute at WTO

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has won a suit it filed with the World Trade
Organization (WTO) over an antidumping import duty imposed on its
paper products by South Korea.

"The WTO dispute settlement body (DSB) has vindicated our
claim that Korea violated the antidumping agreement by imposing
an additional import duty on our paper products," said Minister
of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu on Monday.

The body ruled last Friday that South Korea had failed to
prove that Indonesia's paper industry was dumping its products in
the country or that South Korea's local paper industry had
suffered losses as a result of dumping.

South Korea must comply with the ruling by scraping the
additional import duty, the minister said.

She added that this was the first suit Indonesia had brought
to the DSB as the main disputant and won.

Indonesia was assisted in the case by the Advisory Center for
WTO Law, a kind of legal aid commission set up for developing
countries involved in trade disputes at the WTO.

The trade ministry's director general for international
cooperation, Herry Soetanto, explained that South Korea could
appeal the ruling.

"But the process is not simple and would take some time," he
said.

Indonesia filed a suit with the DSB after the Korean Trade
Commission began imposing an antidumping import duty ranging from
2.8 percent to 8.2 percent on uncoated paper and several other
paper products from Indonesia in November 2003.

The commission had previously imposed temporary antidumping
import duties in May 2003, ranging from 0.5 percent to 51.6
percent, after several South Korean paper producers protested
against an influx of paper products from Indonesia.

The policy directly affected Indonesian paper producers,
including one of the country's largest, PT Sinar Mas, which
claimed the import duty cost it US$500,000 monthly.

Sinar Mas said four of its paper mill subsidiaries were
affected by the policy.

"Our exports to Korea accounted for 6 percent of our total
exports," said Sinar Mas managing director Sulistyanto.

The company hopes its annual exports to Korea can climb to
$120 million, after dropping to $60 million from about $100
million before the antidumping import duty took effect.

Indonesia imported to South Korea some 88,661 tons of uncoated
paper and paperboard valued at $139.1 million in 2002.

That figure dropped to 68,783 tons valued at $102.1 million
the following year after the Korean Trade Commission imposed the
antidumping duty.

"This (decision) was the result of good cooperation between
the private sector and the government that will be a model for
future disputes that threaten our exports," said Mari.