A meeting at the WTO last week put in place the procedures to institute a Disputes’ Panel against Indonesia.

According to William Antonio da Costa Júnior, the General Coordination of Trade of the Department of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Negotiations WTO and Luis Henrique Barbosa da Silva, the General Coordination of Multilateral Affairs (CGAM), Department of Commercial Affairs, the litigation was started because of several items in Indonesia legislation that show a violation of WTO rules.

"Among the measures are an inconsistent import ban on chicken cuts, marketing conditions stricter on imported products compared to local produced products and a delay to the start of negotiations on a sanitary agreement with Brazil, without reasonable justification," they said.

Brazil said that Indonesia was a good potential market for Brazilian products, with a population of more than 230 million people, low production of chicken and annual per capita consumption of about nine pounds.

During the consultation meetings, the Brazilian delegation set out more than 360 questions, in addition to those following up on the replies provided by Indonesia.

The Brazilians said they were trying to identify additional elements on Indonesia’s trade policy for the poultry industry as well as the internal market for poultry and poultry products, health certification and other legal questions.

The litigation was started in December 2013 and on 16 October this year, Brazil formalised the procedure at the WTO.