20/07/2016 (Bernama) - The French government wants to be fair to palm oil and soybean oil producers, said France’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Christophe Penot.

The statement follows objections from Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest crude palm oil (CPO) producers, to France’s plan to impose an additional tax on CPO imports and other palm oil-based products by 2017.

Penot said the French parliament has decided not to introduce the import tax on palm oil for now.

The government will study new proposals for all the vegetable oils, he said.

“This is because there are some discrepancies as olive oil is highly taxed and palm as well as soyaoil are not taxed,” he told Bernama.

France will be initiating a proposal in the next two months to certify products that were produced in a sustainable way and will not tax them, he said.

The proposals will be discussed in parliament, he said.

“So now we are encouraging Malaysia and Indonesia to produce more sustainable palm oil.