Palm Oil Producers to Seek WTO Help Over Green Fears

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Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest palm oil producers, may seek advice from the World Trade Organization to ensure that the European Union’s biodiesel rules do not reduce exports of the commodity, ministers have said.

Suswono, Indonesia’s agriculture minister, said the two countries had agreed to tackle environmental issues that threatened the development of the industry.

Greenpeace has claimed that some producers, including Golden Agri Resources and Indonesian subsidiary PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology, have destroyed forests to expand. Nestle SA and Unilever NV stopped buying palm oil from Sinar Mas after Greenpeace made the claim, which plantation companies have denied.

Bernard Dompok, Malaysia’s plantation industries and commodities minister, told reporters after meeting Suswono in Yogyakarta that the countries would work on a line of action under the WTO framework. 

BLOOMBERG/Palm Oil Producers to Seek WTO Help Over Green Fears