Luhut Pandjaitan: Govt Seriously Considers Boycotting EU Products

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said the government considered boycotting a number of products from European Union countries. This option comes as a fight-back against discrimination of Indonesian crude palm oil (CPO) by the EU.

"We are seriously considering to do this," Luhut said. "If their policy causes misery to the 20 million palm oil farmers in our country, we will fight them. The president said to fight them," Luhut said in Bekasi, Monday, March 25. 

The CPO dispute between producing countries and the EU has been going for several years now. Indonesia and Malaysia, the two largest CPO producers in the world, are planning to file an official rejection of the EU's Delegation Act issued by the European Commission, which prohibits the use of CPO as a raw material for biofuels. 

Read: Minister: Indonesia Temporarily Unable to Sue EU on CPO Ban

Luhut also said this act by the EU had caused negative impacts, including farmers suffering from the decline of CPO prices.

The minister said Indonesia actually did not want to be on a trade dispute with the EU, but "to defend farmers, we will," he said.

Despite the planned boycott, the government is still pursuing diplomatic efforts to cancel the EU's CPO ban. 

FAJAR PEBRIANTO