"The government must demand fair play in CPO trade and marketing in Europe."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Palm Businessmen Organization or GAPKI has urged the Indonesian government to lobby against the proposed hike of crude palm oil (CPO) import tax to 300 percent in France.
"The government should prevent this new regulation from coming into effect by urging French officials to not boost the import tax and help remove the stigma on our CPO as unhealthy and environmentally unfriendly products," GAPKI executive director Fadil Hasan said here on Monday.
"As our palm commodities and CPO have entered the global market, the European nations are pressuring Indonesia into implementing an unreasonably high standard for palm products," he noted.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of GAPKI Joko Supriyono said: "The reason behind the unreasonably high standard they want to impose on us is to restrict the sales of Indonesian CPO in the Europe."
"The government must demand fair play in CPO trade and marketing in Europe, because the commodity contributes significantly to Indonesia`s trade and economy," he explained.
Supriyono stated that the Indonesian government was not doing enough to support its domestic CPO industry, which was "getting reflected in high export taxes".
"They said the high tax rates were aimed at lowering exports and cutting down the domestic price of palm oil," he noted.
However, Supriyono pointed out, the government`s regulations were not effective, because there was no reduction in export or domestic price of CPO.
"Moreover, the high export tax has cut down the margins of the domestic CPO industry, which forces palm farmers to sell their products at lower rates," he said.
"What we are talking about here is a total mess. While the export is growing slowly, the domestic market is not able to absorb palm oil products, with only 4.5 million tons of cooking oil being consumed annually," Supriyono added.
(T.A060/INE/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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