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Malaysia will work diplomatically with India if it decides to restrict imports of Malaysian palm oil, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday, according to the state news agency Bernama.

A palm oil industry watchdog will adopt rules next month that will impose fines on consumer goods companies like Unilever and Nestle if they don’t start buying more green palm oil to help curb deforestation in Southeast Asia, the regulating body said.

Head of the cooperative, Suparji, who goes by one name as is common in Indonesia, said the farmers were able to break new ground in yield and efficiency by partnering with agribusiness Cargill Tropical Palm, which owns palm oil plantations in several regencies of South Sumatra.

India, the world’s top palm oil buyer, is shunning purchases from Malaysia after the Southeast Asian nation’s prime minister criticized its policy in Kashmir, sparking the latest trade spat in the region.

Malaysia’s proposal to increase its sugar and buffalo meat imports from India is not solely due to a reported campaign to boycott Malaysian palm oil by the country.

The food ministry is firming up a proposal to increase integrated GST (IGST) on imported refined palm oil to 12 per cent to offset the impending cut in import duty on the commodity from January next year, according to an official.

Malaysian-owned palm oil companies in Indonesia have adopted sustainable cultivation and plantation practices, says Deputy Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact which India is negotiating with 15 others, including the 10-member ASEAN and China, will not only hit industrial sectors and agriculture the most because of tariff elimination but may also force the country to give up its policy space in determining e-commerce and investment rules, the Forum for Trade Justice has cautioned. The forum includes academicians, economists, farmer bodies and labour representatives.

Malaysian palm oil futures recouped losses to end higher on Tuesday as the country eyed more imports from India, days after a report stated that India was considering restricting imports of palm oil and other products from the country.

Some companies think the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil logo looks too much like a marijuana leaf. Others don’t want to highlight that the controversial oil—sustainable or not—is in their products.

The government pledges to speed up studies on the opportunities and challenges in reviving long-delayed trade talks between Thailand and the EU after the Council of the EU said in a statement on Tuesday the bloc aims to resume negotiations with Thailand on a free trade agreement (FTA).

The Ministry of Primary Industries will capitalise on the RM27 million allocation proposed in the 2020 Budget to intensify the ‘Love My Palm Oil’ campaign to address the negative perception of the country’s oil palm industry.