The Indonesian government is ready to reply the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)`s notification on its crude palm oil exports to the US, a minister said.
“We are still seeking to provide formulas of reply to the Indonesian embassy in the US,” Agriculture Minister Suswono said here on Monday.
He was responding to the US allegation that Indonesian CPO had not met standards to produce renewable energy and thus, the Indonesian government and other stakeholders are given until March 28 to prove the allegation scientifically.
At a discussion with the Agriculture Journalists Forum (Forwatan) late last month Agriculture Counselor of the US Embassy in Jakarta Dennis Voboril said the US had issued a draft environmental protection energy (EPA) which controls greenhouse gas emissions originating from bio-fuels.
Under the draft EPA, the threshold for greenhouse gas emissions is a minimum of 20 percent.
According to the EPA analysis, biodiesel and renewable diesel derived from the Indonesian CPO respectively fall 17 percent and 11 percent short of the standards.
“The first phase has been decided late last January. So we should like to affirm that Indonesia`s CPO exports to the US are not embargoed,” he said.
According to him, the US CPO imports from Indonesia rose 2.5 times compared to 2010.
Many US households also used CPO products for cooking, he said adding CPO was also used for other industries in the US.
