KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has asked Morroco to revise itsduties on crude and refined palm oil so that they would be on par with oneanother, says primary industries minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.In a statement upon his return from a 17-day official visit to Morroco,Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Wednesday, he saidMorroco was a relatively new market for palm oil.

He said seminars on palm oil were conducted in Casablanca and Dubairespectively.

The seminars were aimed at disseminating economic, technical andscientific information of palm oil with special emphasis on its uses andapplications, he said.

Dr Lim said the palm oil economic and technical mission to those countrieshad created greater awareness about palm oil's nutritional and healthattributes and they have the potential to buy more than one million tonnesof palm oil annually.

Dr Lim said he also raised the issue of Malaysia's credit offer under thePalm Oil Credit and Payment Arrangement (POCPA) to Egypt.

"Egypt is not ready to utilise POCPA as yet and instead suggested someother arrangement to be looked into to enhance our bilateral tradeexchange such as the use of counter-trade arrangement," he said.

As for the UAE, he said although it has been a traditional market forMalaysian palm oil in the Gulf region, the bulk of its imports werere-exported to nearby countries.

"Hence, the seminar (in Dubai) served to educate the UAE consumers aboutthe nutritional and health attributes of palm oil so that its localconsumption can be boosted," Dr Lim added.

He said Morocco, Egypt and Jordan had raised the issue of their tradeimbalance with Malaysia as a result of their palm oil imports and hopedthat Malaysia would import more from them to help narrow down the tradegap.

But Dr Lim said he told them that the palm oil trade between them wasmutually beneficial in that those countries also benefitted in terms ofvalue addition, transportation, retailing, storage and re-export.

He suggested that they undertook aggressive promotion of their products inMalaysia to create greater awareness among Malaysians.

-- BERNAMA