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Task force to settle EU, RI, Malaysia deforestation dispute
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Vehicles drive through an oil palm plantation in Pangkalan Banteng, West Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Antara/Makna Zaeza)
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esponding to the opposition of palm oil-producing countries to its deforestation stance on trade, the European Union has agreed to set up a joint task force to achieve a “win-win solution” for the European Commission, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The joint task force, involving numerous stakeholders, will focus on several commodities likely to be heavily scrutinized by the newly legislated EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), such as palm oil, wood, rubber, coffee and cocoa, a joint statement by the three parties said on Thursday.
Recent months have seen Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta joining forces to act as the firmest naysayers against the EUDR, a trade policy seeking to ban all imports linked to deforestation from entering the vast European market.
Arguing that the policy is “discriminatory” against developing countries with limited capacity to transform their most crucial industries within a short period of time, the two neighbors have previously declared their intention to fight the policy.
The EU, on the other hand, has repeatedly insisted that it intends only to mitigate climate change, denying claims that its policy is a form of “regulatory imperialism”, as previously described by Jakarta officials.
A lot is at stake if these disagreements remain unsettled, including the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) and the Malaysia-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with the former already scheduled to be finalized by the end of this year, just prior to Indonesia’s election year.
With these clashing interests still looming large, the three parties have agreed to settle their differences in the joint task force, which will include key government officials, associations and smallholder representatives. The first week of August will see these key actors congregate for their debut meeting, the statement added.
