"Indonesia will clarify again the revised import regulations that had been made following the complaint filed by the U.S. with the Panel and Appellate Body of the WTO," Indonesia`s Permanent Representative to the WTO in Geneva Hassan Kleib noted in a statement received here on Wednesday.
Kleib, who is also Indonesia`s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, clarified some report that Indonesia should pay a fine of US$350 million to the U.S. for violating WTO`s regulations was actually a suspension of the concession facility for Indonesia`s import tariff on horticulture, livestock, and animal products.
"The $350 million amount was an initial estimate of the losses incurred by U.S. businesses in 2017 that they had claimed was caused by Indonesia`s import tariff policy," Kleib noted.
Quoted from Reuters, the U.S. has urged WTO to let it impose sanctions on Indonesia after winning a trade dispute that it said cost U.S. businesses up to $350 million in 2017, a U.S. filing published by the WTO showed on Monday.
The U.S. and New Zealand had both filed the dispute in 2014, and both won the WTO rulings last year against Indonesian import restrictions on food, plants, and animal products, including apples, grapes, potatoes, onions, flowers, juice, dried fruit, cattle, chicken, and beef.
Indonesia had lost an appeal on Feb 17 last year and was requested to review its import regulations following a dispute filed by the U.S. and New Zealand.
Based on the agreement among three countries, a Reasonable Period of Time was applied for Indonesia to revise its import policies, with a due date on July 22, 2018.
"We have completed the revision, but it seems that the U.S. authority, still not satisfied with some changes made by Indonesia, then urged the Dispute Settlement Body to hold an assembly on August 2," Kleib revealed.
In general, the process of trade dispute settlement in the WTO might take four to five years, as the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) receives a huge number of complaints from the WTO`s member states.
All decisions made by DSB`s panel are binding, and it might ask a respondent to revise its policy as requested by the complainant.
Reporter: Azizah Fitriyanti
Editor: Bustanuddin
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