Pulp and paper producer Sinar Mas has asked the government to request a consultation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to respond to the recent anti dumping and countervailing duty (CVD) petition filed by US producers of coated papers.

“We believe the issue is ready for the next steps, either a request for WTO consultations, or a high-level meeting with senior officials with the US Department of Commerce or both. We have tried to reach the DOC but there is little to be gained,” Sinar Mas managing director Gandi Sulistiyanto said here Saturday.

According to Sulistiyanto, who joins the Indonesian delegates at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, the WTO consultations are needed to bring a wider range of US officials into the discussions and  to have a well-defined procedure that will supplement the normal US procedures for these cases.

These consultations about the preliminary determination will send a stronger signal underlining the Indonesian concerns to those involved in the case both in the US and in the WTO.

However Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said the government would wish to study the case in detail first before making any further moves.

“This is the second time for Indonesia [that the US petition the WTO to authorize anti-dumping measures]. They [the US petitioners] have concluded that the Indonesian government has provided subsidies [to Sinar Mas]. We must provide evidence that there were no such subsidies before having consultations [with WTO],” she said.

Mari, who was heading to Seattle Sunday to attend a US-ASEAN coordinating meeting, said she would seek further information from her US counterpart during her visit and make a request for fair treatment in the matter.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the US Department of Commerce has now taken steps against Asia Pulp & Paper, owned by Sinar Mas Group, by imposing a 30.82 percent anti-dumping duty on its exports of glossy magazine-quality paper from China whilst imposing a lesser 10.62 percent against its exports from Indonesia.

The decision is another victory for US firms NewPage Corp., Appleton Coated LLC and S.D. Warren Co., and for US labor unions, who filed a request last year for relief from alleged dumping practices by Sinar Mas Group, and therefore by China and Indonesia.

The United States imported US$213.3 million’s worth of coated paper from China in 2009 and $46.9 million’s worth  from Indonesia.

The anti-dumping duties announced on Thursday were in response to evidence of the paper being sold in the US at below fair market value.

These new anti-dumping measures come on top of countervailing duties of 3.92 percent to 12.83 percent for China and 17.48 percent for Indonesia announced in March by the US government to offset alleged government subsidies from China and Indonesia to the benefit of the Sinar Mas Group.

Meanwhile, Mari explained that she would seek to raise the awareness of the US on the progress of Southeast Asian countries in trade and economics especially the recent economic achievements of the ASEAN regional grouping and its member states.

“This is the first meeting between the two parties and the US requested the meeting,” she said. “The US has left Southeast Asia aside for a while and President Barack Obama has wished to increase his focus on the region, especially with his planned visit to Indonesia in June.”

In the near future, ASEAN countries will meet in Singapore on May 13 to have a dialogue between the  ASEAN regional grouping and Germany.


US Department of Commerce has taken steps against Asia Pulp & Paper, by imposing a 10.62 percent anti-dumping duty on its paper exports.

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