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 DIREC TIVE 2009/28/EC,  
RENEWABLE ENERGY DIR ECTIVE  
STATEMENT BY MALAYSI A TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS T O TRADE  
6 AND 7  MARCH  2019 
The following communication, dated 13 March 2019 , is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Malaysia . 
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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 o f 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 Art icle 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 expan sion 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 de legated 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 indir ect 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 expansio n 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 expansi on 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 m ost 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.  G/TBT/W/598  
 
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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 wil l 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 b iofuels 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 (MS PO) 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 t he 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 appreciat es 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 trea tment 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 prod ucts into the European Union .  
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