Introduction
When pork imports increase sharply, the Japanese government is geared to implement a special measure for protecting domestic pork producers. This urgent and temporary measure is called a “safeguard.” In the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations, the Japanese...
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2016.06.01
4,032
2013.10.23
13,921
Song Soo Lim
songsoo@korea.ac.kr
Dept. of Food and Resource Economics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
ASEAN member countries have an abundant resource including land and mineral deposits. As the region has embraced globalization and market openness, it is realizing its...
2013.10.31
11,682
Nik Rozana Nik Mohd Masdek*, Tengku Mohd Ariff Tengku Ahmad* and Abu Kasim Ali*
*Economic and Technology Management Research Centre, MARDI Headquarters, Malaysia
e-mail: nrozana@mardi.gov.my
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluated the prospects of further agricultural trade...
The governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, two of the world’s largest palm oil producers, have intensified their criticisms against European Union trade policies, which they deem to be discriminatory toward palm oil.
Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s outcry has sown doubts over the two countries’ commitments to combat deforestation, with palm oil being a contributor to forest loss in the region.
Central to the outcry is a new European Union regulation that will block the import of “dirty commodities,” including palm oil sourced from illegal plantations and deforestation.
On Dec. 6, the European Council, Parliament and Commission struck a preliminary deal to adopt the deforestation-free regulation, proposed by the European Commission in 2021.
On Jan. 12, Malaysian commodities minister Fadillah Yusof said the two neighboring countries would discuss the law.
He added that Malaysia could stop exporting palm oil to the EU “if they [the EU] are giving us all a difficult time to export to them.”
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), an intergovernmental organization for palm oil producing countries established by Indonesia and Malaysia, said that the EU regulation is discriminatory because it “will create an unfair level [of] playing field for the palm oil industry in the EU, particularly against locally produced rapeseed oil.”
“From the economic perspective, the EU regulation on deforestation-free products can impact the palm oil price in this market,” CPOPC secretary general Rizal Affandi Lukman told Mongabay. “It may no longer be competitive because it will increase the cost of production and administrative burden to fulfil the due diligence requirements for the exporters of palm oil and its products.”
Therefore, the regulation might be against the WTO rules by singling out selected imported commodities, he said.
To counter any policies that could harm the palm oil industry, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that the two Southeast Asian nations would work together and strengthen cooperation through the CPOPC to “fight discrimination against palm oil.”
Read more here.