Global Courant
Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pledge to cooperate in the fight against the EU’s palm oil ban.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for better cooperation with neighboring Malaysia to combat what he called “discrimination” against their country’s oil palm products as a new European Union law threatens to dent exports of the commodity.
The EU passed a law this year banning imports of raw materials linked to deforestation, a move that is expected to harm palm oil.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s two largest producers and exporters of palm oil, a raw material used in everything from lipstick to pizza.
“We need to strengthen this cooperation. We don’t want raw materials produced by Malaysia and Indonesia to be discriminated against in other countries,” Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is known, said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday after a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
In a joint statement, the two leaders pledged to work closely together to tackle the EU’s “extremely harmful discriminatory measures against palm oil”.
The EU must work quickly towards a fair and equitable solution, they said in the statement.
Indonesia and Malaysia, which together account for about 85 percent of global palm oil exports, sent a joint mission to Brussels last week with senior government officials from both countries meeting with EU leaders to discuss the deforestation bill.
Malaysia has called the law “unjust” and has said it is working with Indonesia to consider an appropriate response.
Jokowi also said that the countries have agreed to establish a framework for protecting the rights of migrant workers.
Malaysia has faced a series of allegations in recent years over its treatment of migrant workers, the backbone of its manufacturing and service industries. Several Malaysian companies have been banned in the United States for using “forced labour”.
Indonesia is the largest source of foreign labor for Malaysia, with many Indonesians working on palm oil plantations.
