REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - As a host, Indonesia will propose to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to put palm oil (CPO) and rubber on the list of environmental goods. Vice Minister of Trade, Bayu Krisnamurthi, said on Saturday that rubber, one of Indonesia commodities, was environmental friendly goods. Rubber trees absorb carbon.
"It has a strong reason to say that rubber must in on the environmental good list," he said.
Every product in the environmental good list will only have maximum five percent tariff in 2015. Indonesia has once proposed CPO on the list. But, many nations considered the commodity environmental unfriendly.
Representatives of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently visited Indonesia to observe palm oil management in the nation. Should EPA agree that CPO is an environmental product, it will be easier for CPO to be on the list. Indonesia faces tariff barrier for the export of CPO. France even planned to impose 300 percent import tax because CPO considered detrimental to environment and health.