WTO moves ahead with Indonesia’s complaint against EU

Khalil Manaf Hegarty
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PREMIUM

Melbourne / Mon, August 3, 2020 / 09:31 am

WTO moves ahead with Indonesia’s complaint against EU

Harvest time: A worker gathers oil palm fruit bunches at a plantation in Lampung. (The Jakarta Post/R. Berto Wedhatama)

Indonesia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against the European Union trade barriers is moving ahead. It is a significant moment for the region’s largest agricultural export. Indonesia has successfully pushed for the WTO to form a panel in its complaint against the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). The Panel was announced Wednesday as part of a series of WTO meetings last week. The complaint was originally put forward by Indonesia in December 2019. When a WTO member is to introduce a measure that is likely to be “trade disruptive”, they are required to inform relevant committees at the WTO. The EU did not do this when RED II was introduced. Indonesia and other palm oil producing countries expressed concern at several points throughout 2019. After the complaint was put forward, Indonesia and the EU held a number of consultat...