MINISTERS DECRY EU RESOLUTION
Malaysia, Indonesia pledge to work with other producers to address latest ‘discriminatory’ move
MALAYSIA and Indonesia will press the European Union to reject discriminatory terms that can hurt the livelihoods of tens of million of oil palm farmers.
In a joint statement from Jakarta yesterday, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong and Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution expressed their disappointment at the adoption of the Resolution on Palm Oil and Deforestation of Rainforests by the European Parliament on April 4.
The resolution called for a single certification scheme for palm oil entering the EU market and for the phasing out of vegetable oils that drive deforestation by 2020.
Both ministers had chaired a Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) meeting that discussed, among others, global developments affecting the palm oil trade.
“The CPOPC is of the view that environmental issues should not be used as a tool for discrimination and a disguised restriction to trade.
“The proposed measures under the EU resolution goes against international trade obligations,” they said.
“Indonesia and Malaysia will work together with other palm oil producers in addressing this issue,” they said, adding that the EU resolution would erode the international palm oil trade and, inevitably, the livelihoods of tens of million of farmers in tropical nations.
Darmin and Mah said global oil palm cultivation, which currently stood at 18.12 million hectares, was significantly lower in acreage compared with other vegetable oils, such as soya bean, rapeseed and sunflowers, which collectively stood at 180.29 million hectares.
This meant that oil palm cultivation was the most sustainable vegetable oil crop, they said.
The ministers said palm oil, in the last decade or so, had also been subject to discriminating certifications that exempted other edible oils and fats.
Darmin and Mah said oil palm cultivation and palm oil exports contributed to multiplier economic benefits for more than 16 million people in Indonesia and four million in Malaysia.
Palm biofuel produced from sustainable sources had also been proven to be more environ- mentally friendly than other sources of biofuels.
“The phasing out of palm oil from EU’s biofuels programme by 2020 is incomprehensible, since the environmental impact of any proposed replacement would be more damaging to the environment,” they added.