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RI flushes away OZ customs toilet paper dumping dispute

Indonesia has gained a victory against antidumping measures imposed by the Australian Customs on Indonesian toilet paper after an Australian review revealed that no indications of dumping were found

Mustaqim Adamrah (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, January 14, 2010

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RI flushes away OZ customs  toilet paper dumping dispute

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ndonesia has gained a victory against antidumping measures imposed by the Australian Customs on Indonesian toilet paper after an Australian review revealed that no indications of dumping were found.

“The Australian Customs has sent us a notification that selected brands of Indonesian and Chinese toilet paper are no longer the subject of temporary antidumping duties,” the Trade Ministry’s director for trade security Ernawati said Wednesday.

Antidumping duties are imposed by a country to help to counter dumping — an act where an exporter sells the bulk of a product in overseas markets at prices below its production costs and/or below what it charges on its home market.  

Ernawati said the decision was issued Tuesday by Australia’s Attorney General Robert McClelland after a review process that finished on Dec. 31, 2009 carried out for the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Customs).

“After the review, there was no proof that damage suffered by Australian manufacturers was the result of exports by Indonesian and Chinese [manufacturers],” she said.

She also said manufacturers could request a refund to compensate them for extra duties they had paid over the last year to Australia.

The Australian Customs’ initial decision to impose antidumping duties was handed down on Dec. 31, 2008, following complaints from petitioners such as Kimberly-Clark Australia and SCA Hygiene.

Pindo Deli and Gold Hong Ye — two paper mills which are managed by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) in Indonesia and China respectively — are among tissue paper suppliers accused by Australian Customs of dumping, in addition to PT Lontar Papyrus and PT Univenus.

Pindo Deli, Lontar Papyrus and Univenus are subsidiaries of Indonesia’s vastly diversified business empire Sinar Mas Group.

The Australian Customs argued in its initial investigation that China dumped their products in the Australian market by selling at a margin of between 2 percent and 25 percent (below market prices), and in the Indonesian market by a margin of 33 percent to 45 percent (below  reasonable prices), Australian newspapers reported Wednesday.

Following the Dec. 31, 2008, decision, Pindo Deli immediately requested an administrative review by the Australian Trade Measures Review Officer (TMRO), saying that the Australian Customs were inconsistent with the Australian legislation and the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The revocation might have something to do with the Indonesian government’s threat to bring the dispute forward to the WTO, said Australian newspapers.

The Indonesian Trade Ministry’s director general for international trade cooperation Gusmardi Bustami previously told The Jakarta Post that he had warned the Australian ambassador in Geneva against the punitive tariffs imposed following the allegation of dumping, asking for it to be revoked. He said that otherwise he would bring the case to the WTO and invoke its formal dispute settlement procedures.

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