A HIGH level team of Malaysian-Indonesian officials will head to the European Union this week in the latest effort by both countries to head off a potential palm oil ban by the region.

Primary Industries secretary-general Tan Yew Chong and Malaysian Palm Oil Board CEO Kalyana Sundram will be joining Indonesian Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution at the European Commission headquarters next week in Brussels, Belgium.

This was confirmed by Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok who is scheduled to go to Europe herself next month.

The delegation will show a united front among Indonesia and Malaysia, the commodity’s top producers, to fight EU’s proposal to phase out palm oil-based biofuels in the region by 2020, Kok told The Malaysian Insight.

An EU ban would impact Malaysia’s palm oil exports. According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, in 2018, the region was the second-largest importer of local crude palm oil at 1.91 million metric tonnes.

“Both Malaysia and Indonesia want to show to the EU that both countries are working together to fight against the EU Delegated regulation,” Kok said, referring to the proposal’s formal name, the Renewable Energy Directive Delegated Act.

The EU’s Delegated Act classifies palm oil as “high risk” feedstock for biofuels as the process of planting the crop is said to drive deforestation.

The Delegated Act will be reviewed by the European Parliament over two months, starting March 13.

Malaysia and Indonesia consider the EU proposal as discriminatory as it ignores the fact that soy oil, which is also used in bio fuels and is planted in North and South America, has also caused deforestation.

A report on Palm Oil Monitor blog suggests that the Delegated Act is motivated more by trade interests between the US and the EU than actual environmental concerns.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had threatened to block EU imports if the region goes ahead with the ban. – April 8, 2019.