The Malaysian Insight (15/11/2017) - Malaysia and Indonesia view the export restriction on palm oil in the European Union seriously and are ready to take joint action to counter the discrimination, which will jeopardise the livelihoods of more than 18 million smallholders in both countries, said Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Najib and Indonesian President Joko Widodo raised the matter during the Asean-EU Summit, which was also attended by EU President Donald Tusk.

"I emphasised the fact that the discrimination will adversely affect the palm oil industry, jeopardising the income, welfare and livelihoods of 600,000 smallholders in Malaysia and 17.5 million in Indonesia," he told Malaysian journalists in Manila yesterday.

Najib highlighted the issue to Tusk, describing it as “very serious”, and got the EU president to say he would personally look into the matter.

Asked if Malaysia and Indonesia would take counter action if the EU remained adamant on the matter, Najib said he would raise it with Jokowi during the annual consultation to be held in Kuching on November 22.

"If we act independently, the impact will not be that effective. But if we undertake joint action, it will have a positive and marked effect as Malaysia and Indonesia together account for 82% of global palm oil output. ”

Malaysia and Indonesia contribute more than RM57 billion of the world’s palm oil production.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution in April that only environmentally sustainable palm oil can be imported into the EU after 2020.

It called for a single certified sustainable palm oil scheme for Europe-bound palm oil exports to make sure that the oil was produced using environmentally sustainable methods that prevented deforestation.

The resolution said the current certification scheme was flawed and did not meet internationally accepted standards on sustainability. – Bernama, November 15, 2017.