Indonesia has called on the EU to lift tariffs on its stainless steel products

At the end of last week, Indonesia called on the European Union to immediately lift countervailing and anti-dumping duties on its stainless steel products after a group of experts from the World Trade Organization (WTO) supported the country. This was reported by Reuters.

Earlier, the WTO said that the EU had acted inconsistently with some of the organization’s rules regarding its duties on cold-rolled stainless steel flat products from Indonesia. The panel called on the bloc to bring the measures into line with the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM).

The EU imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from 10.2% to 20.2% on Indonesian stainless steel products in November 2021, and from 2022, countervailing duties of up to 21.4% were introduced for the country. Indonesia brought the dispute to the WTO in 2023, claiming that EU tariffs had significantly reduced its steel exports.

This case is one of a series of trade disputes between the parties, even though they concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement in September this year. The EU has said it will appeal the WTO panel’s ruling.

At the same time, the European Commission has launched a review of the expiry of existing anti-dumping measures on imports of hot-rolled stainless steel sheets and coils from Indonesia, China, and Taiwan.

The relevant request was submitted by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) in July this year.

These duties were first introduced in 2020, amended later that year, and in 2023 their scope was extended to products from Turkey. The investigation will continue until mid-2026.

It should be recalled that in September this year, the European Commission announced the launch of an anti-dumping investigation into imports of certain types of cold-rolled flat products (CRF) from India, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam.