B

razil may step up its fight at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Indonesia'€™s poultry import rules after a recent consultation failed to provide a definitive answer, a trade official has said.

Indonesian trade officials met last week with their Brazilian counterparts to explain the rule, which the South American country deems '€œtrade restrictive'€ to its chicken exports.

The Trade Ministry'€™s director general for international trade cooperation, Bachrul Chairi, said that Brazil might formally request the establishment of a dispute settlement panel under the remit of the global trade governing body to address its complaint.

'€œThe Brazilian poultry industry has urged its government to bring the case to the WTO. This is because for many years they have been unable to sell their products to Indonesia,'€ Bachrul said Friday.

Indonesia, the world'€™s fourth-largest country with 250 million people, has placed some restrictions on animal imports based on health concerns. Measures include requiring importers to register, granting special import licenses and tightening up examinations of inbound animal shipments.

Brazil has argued that some regulations, such as stricter animal checks and the requirement for import permits, have negatively affected its business in Indonesia.

The Brazilian government considers that Indonesia'€™s restrictions '€œeffectively prohibit Brazilian chicken meat and chicken products from entering the Indonesian market'€, the WTO said earlier in a statement.

A counselor at the Embassy of Brazil in Jakarta, Rodrigo Andrade Cardoso, did not respond to The Jakarta Post'€™s inquiry about the potential request for the formation of a dispute settlement panel.

However, Cardoso said in a recent statement that Brazil had been trying since 2009 without success to enter the Indonesian market for beef and chicken products. '€œDespite the Brazilian requests, until the present moment Indonesia has not given any reasonable explanation for the restrictions, nor has it shown any intention of changing this situation, which has caused Brazil to launch a dispute at the WTO.'€

Cardoso further said that Brazil expected that the dispute settlement could end the barriers preventing it from exporting chickens to Indonesia. Brazil is the third-largest producer and the biggest exporter of chicken in the world, controlling 37 percent of chicken meat global exports in 2013, with its products being consumed in 155 countries across five continents, according to data from the embassy.

Saudi Arabia was the main destination of Brazilian chicken exports last year, followed by the EU, Japan, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

With its sizeable exports, Brazil earned US$7 billion from chicken meat and frozen chicken exports in the past year, but its shipments to Indonesia settled at a low $45,000, Reuters reported.

Brazil, a WTO member, has filed a total of 26 cases to be settled by the organization'€™s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).

Before its case with Indonesia, it repeatedly sought WTO settlement for other restrictions barring its chicken sales. Its last dispute over chicken exports was with South Africa in 2012.