{"id":19895,"date":"2021-03-10T10:18:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T03:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gapki.id\/en\/?p=19895"},"modified":"2021-03-10T10:18:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T03:18:25","slug":"the-swiss-vote-affirmed-that-indonesian-palm-oil-is-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gapki.id\/en\/news\/2021\/03\/10\/the-swiss-vote-affirmed-that-indonesian-palm-oil-is-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Voters Give Green Light To Indonesian Palm Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZURICH, Switzerland — Voters in Switzerland have given the green light to\u00a0a free trade deal with Indonesia with a small majority of 51.6%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The vote was closer than expected after Zurich (the canton with the most voters) showed its hand last, sealing\u00a0the fate of the referendum. The\u00a0main pockets of resistance were\u00a0the French-speaking cantons such as\u00a0Geneva (where a lot of commodity firms are based) and Vaud (home of the headquarters of Swiss food giant Nestl\u00e9).<\/p>\n

Palm oil was\u00a0at the heart of the\u00a0referendum on the free trade agreement between Switzerland and Palm oil agreement between Switzerland and Indonesia. The deal aims to facilitate trade with the South-East Asian country and will now remove customs duties on Swiss exports like cheese, pharmaceutical products, and watches.<\/p>\n

Indonesia, for its part, will be able to sell its industrial products on the Swiss market duty-free. Tariff reductions are also planned for certain agricultural products, in particular palm oil, of which Indonesia is the world\u2019s largest producer and exporter.<\/p>\n

Those backing the referendum included opponents of globalization, left-wing parties and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Their arguments against the free trade deal were mainly environmental, with opponents pointing out that palm oil cultivation is linked to the destruction of the rainforest. Supporters of the deal, on the other hand, argued that imported palm oil will have to meet certain environmental standards in order to qualify for a tariff reduction.<\/p>\n

Reactions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who also holds the economy portfolio, said that the Swiss people felt\u00a0the trade deal was\u00a0correct and balanced. He added that\u00a0the concerns of the opponents\u00a0will be taken into account and Switzerland will support Indonesia in producing sustainable palm oil. “This vote is not a choice of the economy over human rights and the environment,” he said. Parmelin hinted that future trade deals may also incorporate sustainability clauses, but stressed that each agreement is unique with its own set of challenges.<\/p>\n

Along with the Swiss government, the palm oil sector in Indonesia \u2013\u00a0which has suffered economic policy setbacks in Europe \u2013\u00a0also heaved a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the outcome of today\u2019s vote. The trade deal is a win-win for the palm oil industry, for Indonesia, for Switzerland, and for all EFTA nations, and will bring positive benefits for Swiss consumers and exporters, and Indonesian small farmers. The Swiss vote affirmed that Indonesian palm oil is sustainable,” said a spokesperson for the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI). The industry body hopes that the result\u00a0will help convince other European countries that palm oil from Indonesia is “best-in-class” when it comes to sustainability.\u00a0Indonesia is fighting a European Union ban on the use of palm oil as biofuel by 2021.<\/p>\n

The slim margin of victory was a surprise to some. Monika R\u00fchl, director of the Swiss business federation Economiesuisse, was hoping for an emphatic victory for the\u00a0free trade deal. “We expected a clear-cut yes,” she\u00a0told Swiss public broadcaster RTS on Sunday. “The concerns of the population must be taken very seriously,” she added, with reference\u00a0to the protection of human rights and the environment.<\/p>\n

Her thoughts were echoed by parliamentarian Simone de Montmollin of the Radical-Liberal\u00a0Party, who had campaigned for the free trade deal.\u00a0“This is a signal that an economic agreement cannot be made to the detriment of all the fundamental principles of respect for the environment and social rights,” she said.<\/p>\n

Fellow parliamentarian Fabio Regazzi of the Centre, who was also part of the committee for\u00a0the free trade deal, agreed that forests and labour rights were important. However, he said\u00a0that the Swiss must bear in mind that\u00a0eventually it is an\u00a0economic agreement between two countries. It is not possible “to impose everything you want”, he said of the opponents. Regazzi also regretted that the campaign had focused on the issue of palm oil, which represents only a very small part of the agreement. The many benefits that the agreement brings to small and medium-sized enterprises were\u00a0absent from the debate, according to him.<\/p>\n

Point made<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supporters of the referendum against the trade agreement had mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

“I am not at all disappointed” by the result, said the maverick\u00a0initiator of the referendum Willy Cretegny,\u00a0an organic winegrower.\u00a0“We had already won before the results because we opened the debate,” he said.<\/p>\n

Both Cretegny and the Green Party (via parliamentary representative\u00a0L\u00e9onore Porchet) expressed their determination to target other free trade deals in the pipeline, most notably the one with Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay).<\/p>\n

The president of the Young Socialists Ronja Jansen expressed her disappointment at the result. “It was clear from the start that it would be a David versus Goliath fight,”\u00a0she told Swiss public broadcaster SRF.<\/p>\n

Swiss NGOs, especially those that did not take a side in the vote, said the outcome demonstrated that a change in the nature of economic agreements was necessary. Alliance Sud, the Society for Threatened Peoples and Public Eye\u00a0welcomed the interest shown in the debate on Swiss trade policy.<\/p>\n

Source: swissinfo.ch<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZURICH, Switzerland — Voters in Switzerland have given the green light to\u00a0a free trade deal with Indonesia with a small majority of 51.6%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3710,3708,3709],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-info-activity","category-publication","category-recent-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSwiss Voters Give Green Light To Indonesian Palm Oil - Gabungan Pengusaha Kelapa Sawit Indonesia (GAPKI)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Swiss vote affirmed that Indonesian palm oil is sustainable," said a spokesperson for the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI)..\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gapki.id\/en\/news\/2021\/03\/10\/the-swiss-vote-affirmed-that-indonesian-palm-oil-is-sustainable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swiss Voters Give Green Light To Indonesian Palm Oil - 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