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Environmental organisations have said plans to drop import tariffs on deforestation-linked palm oil will “only incentivise further destruction”.
Greenpeace said UK government plans to eliminate import tariffs on palm oil from Malaysia in exchange for joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could lead to greater levels of deforestation-linked products entering UK supply chains.
The government is planning to eliminate import tariffs on palm oil from Malaysia in exchange for joining the CPTPP, according to the Financial Times.
Palm oil production is heavily linked to deforestation, with Malaysia being the world’s second largest exporter of the oil after Indonesia.
Ariana Denham, head of forests at Greenpeace UK, said: “This is outrageous. Palm oil is still a major driver of deforestation in climate critical forests across Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua so cutting palm oil tariffs will only incentivise further destruction.
“It makes a total mockery of the UK government’s legislation to tackle deforestation in UK supply chains and runs completely counter to the government’s promise to put the environment at the very heart of trade.
“Prioritising people and the climate means introducing binding targets, legislation and fiscal measures to reduce production and consumption of products linked to forest destruction to allow these critical natural ecosystems to recover – crucial if we are to stay below 1.5C.”
The WWF warned the UK does not currently have a set of core environmental standards for goods, and dropping tariffs will make it easier to import goods into the UK which could increase the risk of products linked to unsustainable production methods entering UK supply chains.
Anna Sands, senior policy advisor at the WWF told Supply Management: “We’re definitely concerned by it. It’s something that we’re worried about more broadly. Not just for palm oil, but for other agricultural commodities within the CPTPP as well, because we don’t currently have any mandatory environmental standards for what we import so we might be importing more palm oil that’s coming from unsustainable sources, but also we might be importing more high carbon low standard beef from Canada and Mexico.”
She said the issues raised by the CPTPP are symptomatic of wider issues within UK trade policy and said core standards are needed to ensure the future sustainability of all trade deals.
“It’s a symptom of a broader issue of increasing access to our markets without taking into account environmental issues without putting in place a minimum set of environmental standards. And that’s something that we’ve said also about the Australia trade deal and the New Zealand trade deal, so it’s not it’s not a new issue, but I think CPTPP again shows we need to underpin all our trade deals with core environmental standards so there is a level playing field for UK suppliers.”
A government spokesperson said they couldn’t comment on ongoing negotiations, however noted Malaysia is working to update its Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme by 2025.
Anna Sands, senior policy advisor at the WWF told Supply Management: “We’re definitely concerned by it. It’s something that we’re worried about more broadly. Not just for palm oil, but for other agricultural commodities within the CPTPP as well, because we don’t currently have any mandatory environmental standards for what we import so we might be importing more palm oil that’s coming from unsustainable sources, but also we might be importing more low standard beef from Canada and Mexico.”
She said the issues raised by the CPTPP are symptomatic of wider issues within UK trade policy and said core standards are needed to ensure the future sustainability of all trade deals.
“It’s a symptom of a broader issue of increasing access to our markets without taking into account environmental issues without putting in place a minimum set of environmental standards,” Sands said.
“That’s something that we’ve said also about the Australia trade deal and the New Zealand trade deal, so it’s not it’s not a new issue, but I think CPTPP again shows we need to underpin all our trade deals with core environmental standards so there is a level playing field for UK suppliers.”
A government spokesperson said they couldn’t comment on ongoing negotiations, however noted Malaysia is working to update its Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme by 2025.