Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Indonesia On Alert Over China Steel Exports

Trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu said the government would closely watch out for a possible shift in Chinese steel exports from the European Union to Indonesia after the EU imposed an anti-dumping import duty on Chinese products.

"We certainly are quite alert," she said after attending a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives in which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presented the 2010 draft state budget.

Mari Pangestu said imports of iron and steel had been tightly regulated and therefore it was hoped no illegal imports would happen threatenening local industries.

"It isn`t that we already have regulations for verifying steel and iron imports. So we have safeguarded it. Hopefully no illegal imports or dumping would occur," she said.

The European Union had announced the imposition of anti-dumping import duty for iron and steel products from China as of October 2009. The duty is set at between 17.7 percent to more than 30 percent.

Because of the high duty the Chinese exporters will have to pay for exports to the EU it is feared they would shift their exports to Indonesia as a potential market.

Indonesia meanwhile plans to impose a safeguard on imports of nail and wire soon. "The regulation of the finance minister still has yet to be issued. It is still with the finance ministry," she said.

Source: Antara

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