JAKARTA: The government has officially requested for the creation of a panel at the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body trial to settle the case of kretek cigarette ban imposed by the US.
Director General of International Trade Cooperation at the Ministry of Trade Gusmardi revealed the request was made on June 22, 2010 in Geneva as a follow-up to efforts to settle trade dispute at the WTO after the formal consultancy in mid-May met a failure.
The dispute, he informed, was triggered by the issuance of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in the US, which was approved in the US and came into effect in September 2009.
He explained the regulation had violated the WTO regulation since it discriminatively excluded menthol cigarette from the ban.
Around 99% of kretek cigarettes sold in the US market are imported from Indonesia. Indirectly, he added, the US had imposed a ban on Indonesian kretek cigarette.
According to Gusmardi, the government policy of bringing the US to the WTO was the last resort. Previously, he said, Indonesia had been doing efforts since the Act was still in a form of a Bill.
"Indonesia has expressed its concern at various bilateral forums on senior official as well as ministerial level, formally as well as informally, but to no avail," he said in a press release last weekend.
As a WTO member, he inserted, the US should implement international requirements in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the 1994 GATT, which is not to make trade discrimination.
According to him, Indonesia had explained to the court the reason and legal ground for the request for the panel establishment.
Indonesia asked the panel to look into violations that the US committed against Article III of the 1994 GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade).
Gusmardi cited the application of Article XX of the 1994 GATT without scientific proof and unfulfilled requirements of several articles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phythosanitary (SPS).
The US delegation, said the directorate general, expressed their disappointment with Indonesia's action of bringing the US to the WTO, saying the measure was too premature.
He disclosed the US asked Indonesia to reconsider their request for the panel establishment. (Bisnis/sep)
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