BY NATASHA JEE & ABIDGAIL MERTA
KUCHING: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof will visit Thailand to further discuss on European Union’s (EU) regulation on palm oil products.
He said however a scheduled date has yet to be fixed for the said official meeting.
“A date has yet to be set because Thailand is having its general election soon and I feel that it is more appropriate that we wait until their election is over.
“This is because we are afraid that what has been negotiated now cannot be finalised if there is a change of the relevant ministers after the election,” he said.
He said in a press conference after meeting with the youth under Petra Jaya parliamentary constituency in the ‘Juh Bekpes Dengan FY’ programme at a local eatery here yesterday (Mar 4).
Fadillah, who is also the Minister of Plantation and Commodity, said that he had earlier visited Indonesia last month to also discuss palm oil issues and that Malaysia will formulate strategies with Indonesia for a mission to EU to find out and give feedback on the bloc’s policy development on palm oil.
“Despite the various challenges affecting the palm oil industry including the rules introduced by the EU to block our palm oil products from entering the European market, we are making efforts to find ways so that Malaysia is not categorised as a ‘high-risk’ country.
“In fact, Malaysia complies with all the standards in terms of quality, health, and sustainability and we do not practice forced labour.
“This, among others, is what we are implementing so that our country’s standards are recognised internationally,” he pointed out.
He further said the negotiation with the countries including Indonesia and Thailand in the context of palm oil is thus far going on well and this will thus create a stronger voice on the palm oil issue at the ASEAN level.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are among the major palm oil producers.
Meanwhile, according to European Commission’s (EC) website, the EU reached an agreement on Dec 6, 2022 to ban the import of several products that include palm oil, beef, soy, coffee, cocoa, and timber, which have been identified as a “driver of deforestation”, if they come from deforested land after Dec 31, 2020.
