Sinar Mas Group has suggested the government request the mediation of the World Trade Organization (WTO)over preliminary countervailing duties imposed on the business group's paper products.
"We hope our government can propose a consultation with WTO if the US government maintains the countervailing duties on our companies' paper exports," managing director of Sinar Mas Group Gandi Sulistiyanto told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He said that these duties imposed on the business group were unjustified. "They imposed countervailing measures for coated paper products. They wrongly placed the increased duties because we only exported multiply paper to the US," he said.
Moreover, he said, Sinar Mas's exports to the US actually exceeded no more than just 4 percent of Indonesia's total exports. "This is against the regulation because such countervailing duties could be imposed for imported products exceeding 4 percent of total exports of the origin country, in this case Indonesia," he added.
The US government has recently imposed additional preliminary duties of 10.62 percent on coated paper products exported to the country by PT Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia and PT Pindo Deli Pulp and Paper Mills, both subsidiaries of the Sinar Mas Group.
The decision was based on alleged subsidies after a complaint filed by US coated paper manufacturers - New Page Corp, Appleton Coated LLC and S.D.Warren Co - and some union workers on Sept. 23, 2009.
According to the US government's investigation, the Indonesian government subsidized the coated paper producers through income tax cuts of up to 30 percent for six years.
Gandi said the preliminary countervailing measures to his companies' products were based on similar allegations that had been submitted in 2006 by a different US paper producer. "It was rejected by the US government due to the lack of proof. But now the same allegations are being raised again," he said.
However, he said, his companies tried to be cooperative with the investigation process being held by submitting all necessary data to the investigation team within the US Department of Commerce.
Director general of the International Trade Cooperation within the Trade Ministry Gusmardi Bustami said the government would rather resolve the cases bilaterally. "The cases are still being investigated by the US Department of Commerce. There's no permanent decisions on this yet. So, let's just await the investigation's results," he told the Post recently.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said last week the US government could reverse whatever additional tariffs might have been placed, depending on the results of the ongoing investigation.
"If, at the end, we find that there has been no improper activity, we will issue these reports and findings and there will be no duties imposed on these particular companies from Indonesia," he told the Post in a press conference on the sidelines of his two-day visit last week.
He said US did not seek antidumping cases against any companies whether in Indonesia or China.
"The US government acts almost like a judge. The cases are brought to us by companies. They make the allegations, we are responsible for investigating those allegations and issuing findings and a determination," he said.
He said this whole method of investigating alleged dumping cases occurred all around the world. (ebf)
