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.