THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NON-DISCRIMINATION PRINCIPLE IN PALM OIL TRADE BETWEEN INDONESIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The increase in the popularity of palm oil brings new issues regarding environmental
conservation. The European Union, as a region that pays more attention to ecological
conservation, proposes a plan to ban palm oil of up to 0% by 2021. Indonesia and Malaysia as
the biggest palm oil producers against the proposal and believe that it is a violation against the
non-discrimination principle of GATT 1994. The violation happens because the European
Union only bans palm oil, but keeps allowing the production of other vegetable oil, which is
also the raw material of biofuel. Therefore, the analysis of whether the proposal to ban palm
oil by the European Union is the violation against the non-discrimination principle is
fundamental. This study is carried out by using the normative research to obtain the result that
affirms if the proposal to ban palm oil by the European Union is inconsistent with the GATT
clauses. The practical implication of this study is to provide a recommendation of literature on
whether the proposal included in RED II violates the non-discrimination principle.