Thursday, may 25th, 2017 | 03:10 WIB

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Economy, Darmin Nasution, said that the resolution of the EU parliament banning Indonesian palm oil from entering their region was too simple. The issues in question are related to the environment.

“We are aware of differences in perspective, but each has expressed their thoughts and perspective that environmental issue is too simple for Indonesia to be associated with a commodity,” said Darmin after receiving a visit by the delegation of the EU parliament in Jakarta, on Wednesday, May 24th, 2017.

Darmin attended the meeting with the Minister of Industry, Airlangga Hartanto, and the Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita. Darmin thought that the banning on Indonesian palm oil to Europe was because there had been no discussion between the Indonesian government and the EU parliament over the management and utilization of the commodity for the communities.

“Our concern is that the EU is viewing the issue at the broader perspective. There are some lacks, but we have done and keep doing some improvements so we can accept this relation in the future,” said Darmin.

According to him, a follow-up discussion on the sustainability of Indonesian palm oil with the EU parliament will be carried out at the EU Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on July 2017. “We will continue to discuss on the matter. Indonesian government will be going to Brussels to discuss and carry out a presentation again. We should keep doing it as it is part of the discussion process.”

Regardless of whether or not a binding decision will be made, Darmin emphasized that the discussion with the EU should be done to connect the perspective on Indonesian palm oil.

“There has been no concrete proposal, and there should be a follow-up dialogue. As the leader of the European delegation has said, they also realize that there have been many misunderstandings. We cannot expect to solve all this problems in just one meeting,” he said.

The spokesperson of the EU parliament delegation, Sajjad Karim, said that they held the meeting with the Indonesian government to resolve misunderstandings regarding palm oil industry. “It is clear that there are some misunderstandings on the Indonesian palm oil industry from our perspective, the European Union, that need to be straightened out,” he said.

ANTARA

 

Source: m.tempo.co