This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 25, 2019 - March 31, 2019

BANTING: After having warned the European Union (EU) that Malaysia would retaliate if it continued with its ban on Malaysian palm oil, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday said that one of the retaliatory measures could be the country switching to China for fighter jets.

“If they keep on taking action against us (banning our palm oil), we will think of buying airplanes from China or any other country,” he told a press conference after launching the “Love our Palm Oil” campaign in Pulau Carey yesterday.

Dr Mahathir, however, stressed that he was not “declaring war” on the EU as the country still needed goods from the union.

Thus, he said any action to reduce or stop imports from EU countries would not be done in haste but the impact on the nation studied first.

The European Parliament is reported to be in the process of banning the use of palm oil for biofuel while the retail networks in Britain and Iceland as having announced that they will stop using the commodity.

On the same note, Dr Mahathir said the anti-palm oil campaign by European countries would have an impact on Malaysian palm oil exports even though they were not the biggest importers.

“Anti-palm oil sentiments in Europe against Malaysia are very strong ... export of the commodity (from Malaysia) will be affected even though it is not our biggest market,” he said.

On the Philippines, which is seeking a temporary halt on palm oil imports from Malaysia and Indonesia, Dr Mahathir said the government would hold negotiations with the republic to resolve the matter.

Earlier, in his speech, Dr Mahathir expressed his disappointment that European food producers are labelling more of their products with “No Palm Oil”, describing it as a propaganda attempt to protect their markets.

“They do not give attention to (Malaysian) workers in oil palm plantations. We have about 600,000 employees who will lose their jobs if oil palm plantations close down,” he said.

The prime minister said claims by European countries that oil palm cultivation would affect the forests and wildlife like tigers, elephants as well as orang utans were not true.

He also refuted allegations that palm oil was poisonous, saying attempts to show that it should not be included in food was unacceptable.

“To control their (European nations’) edible oil market, they will make allegations that palm oil is dangerous for consumption and unhealthy,” he said. — Bernama