Brazil’s Council of Ministers of the Foreign Trade (CAMEX) last week announced that it will initiate a dispute process through the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the validity of a 2010 ruling by Indonesia’s Supreme Court, which annulled the 2009 Animal Husbandry Law that had allowed the importation of beef and cattle into Indonesia from “disease-free-zones” within countries, even from countries where other areas or zones country were affected by the same disease. The 2009 Animal Husbandry Law was revoked because of it posed potential health risks to consumers and to Indonesia’s large and important cattle production sector by increasing the risk of importing a destructive disease, such as Foot and Mouth (FMD) to Indonesia, which is currently FMD Free, while Brazil is affected by FMD.

The development of this issue comes in the middle of the news that Indonesia’s Government has just revoked a four-year ban on beef and cattle imports from Japan because of the same reason, which is FMD, even though in the latter Japanese export volumes to Indonesia will be very small. Brazil sees this move as Indonesia’s desire to diversify its import supply options. Indonesia argues that this move is intended to reduce Indonesia’s dependence of Australian shipments.

CAMEX says that the 2010 Supreme Court ruling effectively and unfairly banned Brazil’s access to the Indonesia beef and cattle market. It also says that the particular ruling violated Indonesia’s responsibilities under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the Customs Valuation Agreement and the Agreement on Technical Barriers (TBT).