JAKARTA: Indonesia has won a biodiesel dispute against the European Union (EU) at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that will pave the way for the Southeast Asian country to revive its biodiesel exports to the EU. The WTO ruled in favor of several challenges made by Indonesia against anti-dumping duties imposed on its biodiesel exports to the European Union, the Trade Ministry announced on Friday.
“The decision will subsequently reopen Indonesia’s market and revive our biodiesel exports to the EU, which have declined sharply due to the anti-dumping duties imposed by the EU,” Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said in a statement. The ruling is the latest in a series of legal challenges against import duties imposed by the EU on biodiesel imports from Indonesia and Argentina in 2013.
A WTO panel on the case, brought by Indonesia in 2014, said in a ruling made public on Thursday that the EU needed to bring its measures into conformity with WTO agreements. The WTO accepted six of Indonesia’s protests regarding the biodiesel dispute with the EU. Since 2013, the EU has imposed import duties on Indonesia’s biodiesel products with a dumping margin of between 8.8 and 23.3 percent. The move caused a 42.84 percent decline in Indonesia’s biodiesel exports to US$150 million in 2016 from $649 million in 2013.
