Jokowi Persists on Appealing WTO Ruling on Nickel Export Ban

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday said that he will file an appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement body (DSB) after Indonesia lost to the European Union in the nickel export ban lawsuit. Indonesia initially enacted the ban to gain added value from processed nickel exports. 

"Even though we lost at the WTO, our nickel was sued by European Union, it's okay to lose. I convey this to the minister, appeal," Jokowi said at the opening of the National Investment Coordination Meeting at The Ritz-Carlton in Central Jakarta, Wednesday, 30 November.

After losing the lawsuit, the President asserted his plans to expand the ban on the export of raw mining materials to agricultural products. Other commodities that Jokowi plans to ban in the future range from bauxite to coffee.

"We have been exporting it for hundreds of years, stop. Look for investors, invest in it so that there is added value," he insisted. 

Jokowi said the export ban on raw materials had proven to increase state revenues. In the nickel sector alone, he claims the country generates Rp20 trillion in revenue from the export of its raw materials, but when it has been processed, the value of the income soars to Rp300 trillion.

“Other countries have the right to sue us," said Jokowi. "We won't become a developed country if we back down just because of a lawsuit."

Indonesia reportedly controls more than 20 percent of the world's total nickel exports and is also the second largest nickel exporter to the European Union countries' steel industry.

According to the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the estimated reserves of nickel ore are 3.74 billion wet metric tons (wmt) and the proven reserves are 1.49 billion wmt, bringing the total nickel ore reserves in Indonesia to 5.24 billion wmt.

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH

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