- Indonesia’s Special Advisor to the Coordinating Ministry Musdalifah Machmud has written an exclusive piece for Borderlex, on the eve of a new administration in Jakarta and new Commissioners in Brussels;
- She highlights the ways Indonesia and the EU can rebuild their economic relationship and how the EU’s treatment of palm oil imports has been a key factor in a deterioration of bilateral ties;
- Read key excerpts below and at the link here.
On the broader relationship:
“Both Indonesia and the EU have a strong and historical respect for human rights and democracy. And both place significant trust in multilateral institutions, and international norms… However, trade has been an irritant in an otherwise constructive partnership, and this is well understood in both capitals.”
On trade barriers to palm oil:
“In the case of palm oil, as with electric vehicles, EU policy sent a clear signal on an energy transition that would result in greater demand. When Indonesia met that demand with a cheap and efficient resource, Indonesia found itself on the wrong end of a campaign by European farm and biodiesel lobbyists.
Now Indonesia has seen tariffs expand to palm-based oleochemcials, and its agricultural products face new technical barriers in the form of the EU Deforestation Regulation.
The key concern from Indonesia on this regulation is that its millions of smallholder farmers – across palm oil, cocoa, timber, coffee and rubber – will find themselves excluded from the EU’s markets.
This is not because they are deforesting against the EU’s rules, but because the compliance requirements are at once both overburdensome and ill-defined.“
On how to move forward with the EUDR and its delay:
“Indonesia’s efforts on deforestation, its environmental reforms and its certification systems must be recognised within the EUDR and by European stakeholders more broadly.
Indonesia’s deforestation rates are now at their lowest on record, and 90 per cent below their peak a decade ago. The tired narrative of Indonesia – and its commodity producers – as environmental vandals must be dispensed with.”
Read more at Borderlex.