“The Indonesian government objected to the elimination of the use of biofuel from palm oil by the EU,” Indonesia’s Director General of Foreign Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana said in a statement. “In addition to having a negative impact on exports of Indonesian palm oil to the EU, it will also create a bad image for oil palm products in global trade.”
The EU has said the restrictions were required by a broader law agreed by the 28-nation bloc last year, when the European Parliament pushed for curbs on the use of palm oil on concerns its production caused deforestation and aggravated climate change.
The lawsuit underscores a worsening in relations between Indonesia and the EU, after the bloc last week imposed five-year tariffs on biodiesel from the Southeast Asian nation to counter alleged subsidies to producers in the country.
