Illustrative image (Source: awareenvironmental.com.au)KualaLumpur (VNA) – Malaysia and Indonesia are considering the exportrestriction against palm oil to the European Union seriously and ready to takejoint action to counter the discrimination.
Malaysia'sPrime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo raised thematter during the ASEAN-EU Summit in the framework of the freshly-ended 31st ASEAN Summit, which was also attended by President of the European CouncilDonald Tusk.
Bernamanews agency on November 14 quoted Najib as saying that the discrimination willaffect the palm oil industry, threaten the income, welfare and livelihood of600,000 smallholders in Malaysia and 17.5 million others in Indonesia.
Najibhighlighted the issue to Tusk, describing it as ‘very serious’. The EuropeanCouncil President affirmed to look into the matter.
Askedif Malaysia and Indonesia would take counter action if the EU remained adamanton the matter, Najib said he would raise the matter with Jokowi during theannual consultation to be held in Kuching on November 22.
Hesuggested Malaysia and Indonesia cooperate closely in this issue as theytogether account for 82 percent of global palm oil output with combined valueof over 13.6 billion USD
TheEuropean Parliament adopted a resolution in April that only environmentallysustainable palm oil can be imported into the European Union after 2020.
Itcalled for a single certified sustainable palm oil scheme for Europe-bound palmoil exports to make sure that the oil was produced using environmentallysustainable methods and prevented deforestation.
Theresolution said the current certification scheme was flawed and did not meetinternationally accepted standards on sustainability.-VNA
VNA
