U.S. Rejection Of Indonesia's CPO A Trade Strategy

Jakarta, May 16 (Antara) - The US rejection of Indonesian export of crude palm oil which it categorizes as is non environmentally friendly product is only a strategy to protect their vegetable oils, the Indonesian Association of Businessmen (Apindo) said. "I don`t know why our CPO is still rejected. But they always seek to protect their commodities which are not competitive in the market," Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi said after an APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting here on Thursday. Europe also bans imports of CPO from Indonesia. Sofjan said he suspected the United States and Europe are worried that Indonesian CPO, which is more competitive in price would disrupt their market stability. They fear as Indonesian CPO is highly competitive in the market of vegetable oils would result in their vegetable oil losing their market foothold, he said. He said it is an old groundless issue that Indonesian CPO is a non environmentally friendly commodity. Indonesia has long been a target of accusation that it has destroyed its tropical forces to open oil palm plantations. On pressure from non governmental organizations a number of world food giants like Nestle and Unilever had stopped using Indonesian CPO. Meanwhile, Industry Minister MS Hidayat said the government will hold talks on the CPO rejection in the ABAC and APEC forums. "We have to do much lobbying on a lot of issues such as US offer for us to join Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)," Hidayat said. Earlier the United States banned imports of CPO for use as bio-fuel feedstock saying Indonesian palm oil is below standard in emission under a US regulation. The regulation, however, did not ban imports of CPO as foodstuff. The U.S. embassy in Jakarta denied report that that country banned imports of crude palm oil from Indonesia . Agriculture attach� Dennis Voboril said the United States still was importing CPO from Indonesia as well as from Malaysia. The Indonesian Palm Oil Commission accused the United States of being unfair saying the US regulation of Notice of Data Availability (NODA) was discriminating against CPO . The regulation did not gave equal treatment for CPO as for as vegetative oil produced by the United States, it said. Voboril said NODA adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was not banning CPO imports. The EPA regulation was for renewable energy including bio-fuels, he said, adding the United States had a regulation on the use of renewable energy.