Indonesia to file suit with WTO in late Mar against EU biodiesel antidumping duties: reports

The Indonesian government is preparing to file a suit against the EU's imposition of antidumping duties on Indonesian biodiesel at a World Trade Organization meeting scheduled for March 29-30, Southeast Asian media sources reported quoting Indonesian trade defence director Pradnyawati Pambagyo on Sunday.

The EU has imposed antidumping duties on Indonesian and Argentinian biodiesel in November 2013, which almost completely halted the flow of Indonesian biodiesel to the EU. Antidumping duties imposed on individual Indonesian biodiesel producers range between 8.8% and 23.3%, according to European Commission data.

Media reports quoted Indonesian government sources saying that the EU did not use domestic biodiesel values within Indonesia when calculating antidumping duties, causing the profit margin on biodiesel to appear inflated.

Indonesian officials were also spurred by a WTO ruling in March 2016 which ruled in favor of Argentina against antidumping duties imposed on Argentinian biodiesel by the EU, media reports added. Indonesian officials are said to be communicating with their Argentinian counterparts on their experience, according to the media.

The WTO ruling was propped up further when the EU General Court ruled on September 15, 2016 that antidumping duties against Indonesian and Argentine biodiesel imports should be annulled.

Indonesian trade ministry officials could not be reached for comment at press time on Tuesday.

The chairman of the Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association or Aprobi, Paulus Tjakrawan was also hopeful that the antidumping tariffs would be scrapped and exports would recover, Jakarta Post reported.

Indonesian media has reported Indonesian trade ministry statistics which show that the value of biodiesel exports plunged 96.5% from 2013 to $14.7 million in 2015. Exports climbed again in 2016 to $29.8 million, mostly because two Indonesian companies, Wilmar and Musim Mas were exporting biodiesel t o the US market.

Political developments in the US market are putting a question mark upon that flow as well, said Asian traders and producers previously.

Musim Mas also exports limited quantities of palm biodiesel to the EU, but pays antidumping duties on it, market sources add.

--Samar Niazi, samar.niazi@spglobal.com

--Edited by Irene Tang, irene.tang@spglobal.com

Source: Indonesia to file suit with WTO in late Mar against EU biodiesel antidumping duties: reports