G/TBT/W/598
14 March 2019
(19-1580) Page: 1/2
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original: English
EUROPEAN UNION — AMENDMENTS TO THE DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC, RENEWABLE ENERGY DIRECTIVE
STATEMENT BY MALAYSIA TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 6 AND 7 MARCH 2019
The following communication, dated 13 March 2019, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Malaysia. ______
1. Malaysia is very concerned with the development related to the Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II), which had entered into force on 24 December 2018.
2. Paragraph 4 of Article 26(2) of the Directive stated that, by 1 February 2019 the European Commission shall adopt a delegated act in accordance with Article 35 to supplement the Directive by setting out the criteria for certification of low indirect land use change risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels and for determining the high indirect land use change risk feedstock for which a significant expansion of the production area into land with high carbon stock is observed.
3. On 8 February 2019, the European Commission published the draft delegated regulation for feedback until 8 March 2019.
4. Malaysia would like to stress a few points:
5. One, this draft delegated regulation in its current form will bring a significant negative impact to the palm oil industry globally, and particularly to Malaysia. The rules for calculating greenhouse gas impact in the draft delegated regulation which were based on the indirect land use change methodology, clearly lack scientific data and reliable information. The consequences are a widespread disinformation and misleading interpretation of the production of palm oil worldwide.
6. We remain troubled because this draft delegated regulation will create an arbitrary and unjustifiable discrimination, in favour of other oil crops and this is a disguised restriction on international trading of palm oil and its products.
7. Two, the methodology for the calculation of the share of expansion of land in the draft delegated regulation is not a recognised international standard. In this context, we would like to request the European Union to provide scientific evidence and clarification on the formula used to determine the share of land expansion and the productivity factor. We would also like to request the European Union to provide the literature that was used to determine the deforestation and wetlands land expansion for all crops.
8. Three, scientific evidence has proven that oil palm is the most productive oil-bearing crop as compared to other annual oil crops. A single hectare of cultivated oil palm land is able to supply between five to ten times more oil compared to rapeseed and soybean respectively. As palm oil requires least land use yet produces the highest yield, it is quite obvious that the use of biofuels and bioliquids from other oil crops would create greater risk of deforestation and land use changes as compared to palm oil.
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9. We urge the European Union to provide equitable treatment across all oil crops biofuels and bioliquids in line with the principle of non-discrimination which stipulates that a member shall not discriminate between "like" products from different trading partners.
10. Four, biofuels and bioliquids have to be certified under voluntary schemes to demonstrate compliance with the sustainability and greenhouse gas emission saving criteria stipulated under the existing Renewable Energy Directive.
11. Thus, the additional criteria for certification of indirect land use change will result in creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade of biofuels and bioliquids to the European Union. It is more trade restrictive than necessary and more burdensome for producers of biofuels and bioliquids, including Malaysia that produces biofuels and bioliquids from palm oil.
12. The Malaysian palm oil is produced in a sustainable manner and the oil palm industry is committed to produce palm oil in accordance with sustainable principles and criteria under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification scheme, which will be implemented on a mandatory basis by 31 December 2019.
13. In this context, Malaysia urges the European Union to accept and recognise the MSPO certification scheme as one of the voluntary schemes under the Directive for the certification of low indirect land use change risk biofuels and bioliquids. Malaysia is open for discussion and to work together with the European Union for the recognition of the MSPO certification scheme under the Directive.
14. Lastly, Malaysia appreciates the willingness of the European Union to engage in open discussions and exchanges of views and information with the aim to find a mutually acceptable way forward in this matter. However, these engagements were futile and have not resulted in a fair treatment of palm oil.
15. Nevertheless, Malaysia remains fully committed to negotiating in a sincere and constructive manner in ensuring a non-discriminatory treatment against palm products and to prevent the unnecessary technical barriers to trading of palm products into the European Union.
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