JAKARTA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia palm oil export in 2004 is expectedto be down, as the government plans to impose export tax of 60 percent,said the Indonesian commission of palm oil on Tuesday."The Indonesia's palm oil market this year is expected to decline," saidRosediana Suharto of the commission.

She said that based on the analysis of the world palm oil, if thegovernment of Indonesia implements such policy, it would lose a bigmarket.

"The condition later would be used by our palm oil competitor, and ourexport market will be taken over by Malaysia," she said, referring to theexperience in 1998 when the government implemented the same policy whichcaused Indonesia's export market taken over by Malaysia.

Indonesia is the second biggest palm oil exporter after Malaysia.

© Jan 2004 Xinhua News Agency