<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Fadzli Ramli<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 27 April (Bernama) — Malaysia and the European Union (EU) are now in the final stage of signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as well as finalising a comprehensive partnership aimed at strengthening economic cooperation and bilateral relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the positive development is driven by the EU, which now views Southeast Asia as a strategic and important bloc following unilateral tariffs imposed by the United States and instability resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without specifying a timeline, he said Malaysia wants to finalise the agreement as soon as possible so that it can act as a catalyst to boost trade between Malaysia and the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI also mentioned this earlier during the meeting with EU representatives,\u201d he told Bernama and RTM after holding a bilateral meeting with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) here, today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sept 25 last year, EU Trade Commissioner Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d was reported to have said that the Malaysia-EU FTA is expected to be finalised this year, with trade between Malaysia and Europe, which reached \u20ac46 billion, expected to grow rapidly once the agreement is implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohamad said that during the meeting with Kallas, he also raised the issue of the strong anti-palm oil campaign in Europe and rejected the ongoing anti-palm oil campaigns being actively promoted in countries in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that the campaign is not based on scientific evidence but is instead driven by lobbyists from competing oil industries in neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said that it is unfair because labelling food as containing palm oil clearly violates trade ethics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, Kallas understood and agreed with the basis of Malaysia\u2019s arguments and expressed the EU\u2019s willingness to help address the unfair campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Touching on the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Mohamad urged the EU not to equate Malaysia\u2019s forest sustainability standards with practices in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMore than 55 per cent of our land is still covered by tropical forests, and we do not destroy forests to plant oil palm,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He emphasised that the majority of Malaysia\u2019s palm oil industry is professionally managed by large plantation companies that fully comply with the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this regard, he called on the EU to conduct a detailed assessment of the sustainable management of oil palm estates in Malaysia, which are recognised as having high standards, before imposing any discriminatory measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Mohamad said Malaysia\u2019s current focus is on exporting processed palm oil with higher added value, rather than merely exporting crude palm oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said processed palm oil is not only used as cooking oil but is also widely utilised across various downstream industries, including chocolate manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe European Union is a major importer of processed palm oil. Therefore, this is a profitable market for us, and that is why we must firmly counter this anti-palm oil campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that with continuous clarification, Malaysia hopes the EU will better understand the actual practices in its palm oil industry and no longer protect anti-palm oil lobbyists who could affect international trade value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Fadzli Ramli BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 27 April (Bernama) — Malaysia and the European Union (EU) are now in the final stage of signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as well as finalising a comprehensive partnership aimed at strengthening economic cooperation and bilateral relations. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the positive development is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,300,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357107"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357114,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357107\/revisions\/357114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}