JAKARTA – The House of Representatives’ (DPR) Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Body (BKSAP) Chairman Fadli Zon has stated that Indonesian and European Union parliaments are committed to mediating trade dispute on palm oil commodity.
“We’re committed to solving a number of trade problems, such as palm oil dispute, and the EU’s lawsuit regarding our nickel trade,” said Fadli Zon as reported through YouTube TVR Parlemen in Jakarta on Monday (18/03/ 2024).
Regarding the nickel, Fadli expressed his appreciation to the response of EU Ambassador to Indonesia, Denis Chaibi, who does not make an issue over Indonesia’s program of downstreaming in the nickel sector.
“The ambassador has stated that there is no problem related to the downstream program that include nickel downstreaming. They filed lawsuit, but it has nothing to do with technical issues and existing mechanism. We’ve discussed this in our inter-parliamentary meetings. They don’t dispute the downstreaming program, including nickel downstreaming,” said Fadli Zon.
The parliaments of Indonesia and EU have also underlined their joint commitment in increasing trade cooperation during the negotiations of Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA), especially on the sectors of mining and agriculture.
Despite the EU parliamentary elections in June 2024, Fadli Zon hopes that their results should not stand in the way of improving the cooperation of IEU-CEPA.
According to Fadli, IEU CEPA will create a strong platform to advance the trade relations between Indonesia and Europe.
“We (Indonesia) want to see IEU CEPA, between Indonesia and European Union, can quickly resolve the trade problems as it will then open bigger trade potential between Indonesia and EU,” he said.
Previously, the Indonesian government had filed a lawsuit against the EU’s policies on Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II) and Delegated Regulation UE at the WTO on 9 December 2019. Implemented through the European Union Deforestation-Free Regulations (EUDR), the policies are considered to discriminate against Indonesia’s palm oil products. (*)
Source: sawitku.id
