Implications of Nickel Ore Export Restrictions in International Trade Disputes

Abstract

The problems related to restrictions on nickel ore exports started with Indonesia restricting nickel ore exports. Indonesia implemented restrictions because the presence of nickel in Indonesia was running low. The existence of this problem makes the European Union feel disadvantaged. Apart from that, Indonesia has issued restrictions on exports of nickel ore Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 11 of 2019. This regulation is considered to have come into force on January 1 2020, from which date all nickel that wishes to be exported must go through the stages of refining and processing domestically, so that what is exported is not in the form of raw goods but not semi-finished goods or finished goods. In this article it is explained that nickel that cannot be exported is concentrate <1.7%. By issuing this regulation, the European Union considers that Indonesia has violated Article nickel quota so it is considered to violate these regulations. With this problem, the European Union filed a lawsuit with the WTO. The lawsuit has been registered in DS-592. Starting from November 22 2019, the European Union and Indonesia carried out the consultation stage, but in the event that the consultation failed to take place, the next stage that was carried out was the panel stage. However, in this case Indonesia lost the lawsuit with the European Union. Seeing this, Indonesia immediately submitted an appeal to the WTO. Indonesia still wants to limit nickel ore so that it can improve the quality of nickel.