No palm oil ban by EU

 

From Michalis Rokas

I would like to clarify the statement made by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) on the European Union’s (EU) legislative proposal “on the making available on the Union market as well as export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation”.

On Dec 6, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a provisional agreement on the amendments to the text of the original proposal by the European Commission made in November 2021.

The agreement still needs to be formally adopted by both co-legislators and will then enter into force. This is expected to happen in the first half of 2023. Once the EU legislation is in force, operators and traders will have 18 months to implement the new rules. Micro and small enterprises will benefit from a 24 months’ adaptation period, as well as other specific provisions.

Let me at the outset clarify the facts about the content of the new rules. The new rules will require all companies to submit a due diligence statement in order to sell on the EU market soy, cattle, cocoa, coffee, timber, rubber and palm oil, as well as a range of derived products, such as beef, furniture, or chocolate listed in an annex to the regulation. The same applies to the production and export of the same commodities from the EU.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 420 million hectares of forest – an area larger than the EU – were lost to deforestation between 1990 and 2020. The main driver of global deforestation and forest degradation is the expansion of agricultural land, which is linked to the production of the commodities included in the new rules.

The commodities of the scope have been selected based on objective and public data that can be consulted online. The aim was to include the commodities through which the EU has a bigger impact on the world’s forest in terms of deforestation and forest degradation.

Operators are required to ensure that only products that have been produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation or forest degradation after Dec 31, 2020 are placed on the Union market (or exported).

To this end, operators will be required to trace the products they are selling back to the plot of land where they were produced.

Operators also need to ensure that the products are compliant with relevant laws according to the country of production.

The new rules will avoid duplication of obligations and introduce the possibility for small operators to rely on larger operators to prepare due diligence declarations, thereby reducing administrative burden for operators and authorities.

It is therefore untrue and misleading to state that there is a ban on palm oil (or on any other product listed in the new rules, for that matter). Deforestation-free and legally produced palm oil will continue to be placed on the EU market. In other words, the EU will continue to import palm oil – only ensuring that this palm oil is legally produced and not associated with deforestation.

It is also untrue and misleading to state that there is a discrimination vis-à-vis other products such as rapeseed and sunflowers produced in the EU. Based on the available scientific evidence, rapeseed and sunflowers (as well as any other product not listed in the new rules) are not responsible for EU-driven global deforestation in recent years to a comparable degree as the commodities included in the scope. However, the new rules require the European Commission to evaluate in the future whether to extend the scope to other commodities.

The EU looks forward to continuing cooperation with Malaysia to fight climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as to protect human rights. The EU and its member states are already funding a number of technical assistance projects to raise awareness and build capacity in the area of palm oil sustainability in Malaysia, and will continue to do so in the future, with a special focus on smallholders. - FMT

Michalis Rokas is the European Union ambassador to Malaysia.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.