15/02/2012 (Tempo Interactive) - The government is ready to respond to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notification on Indonesian oil palm products and their derivatives which have been considered to be environmentally unfriendly. Agriculture Ministry, Trade Ministry, and other ministries engaging in technical matter have gathered research data and are ready to respond to the warning.

“We believe we have a strong argument,” said Rosedianan Suhartodi, Executive Director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission, on Monday.

The effort was made in response to the EPA notification received in Jan. which said that the Indonesian oil palm products and their derivatives are not friendly to the environment because they gave produced greenhouse gas emissions of 17 percent—the standard for green house gas emissions from oil palm fuel in the United States is set at a minimum of 20 percent. The US government has given a deadline until March 28 for the Indonesian government to come up with an argument.