Japan May Take Indonesia To WTO Over Ban On Ore Shipments

Japan, the world’s second-largest nickel user, called for Indonesia to remove restrictions on ore exports, saying it may make a complaint to the World Trade Organization should compromise talks fail.

“The country’s unilateral measures aren’t appropriate,” Takayuki Ueda, director general of the manufacturing industries bureau of Japan’s trade ministry, said yesterday in an interview inTokyo. Should Indonesia proceed with a complete ban on exports as planned in 2014, Japan, which prefers to negotiate a solution, would consider complaining to the WTO, he said.