Wee thanks India over decision on palm oil import duties

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong has thanked the Indian government for not extending its import duties on several varieties of palm oil from Malaysia.

"Thank you to the Indian government for giving a quick response after I had made a public plea on my Facebook page on March 1.

"This is good news for an estimated 600,000 small farmers in Malaysia," he said on his Facebook post on Thursday (March 5).

In the post, he shared a report from news portal, New Indian Express, which stated that the Indian Commerce Ministry’s investigation arm, Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), would not be extending bilateral safeguard duty on imports of certain varieties of palm oil from Malaysia following Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's resignation as prime minister.

On March 1 on Facebook, Dr Wee asked the Indian government to reconsider its decision for palm oil importers to shun Malaysian palm oil, as the political situation here had changed.

Dr Mahathir resigned as the nation's prime minister on Feb 24, following a political crisis.

Previously, Indian palm oil importers were privately told by their government to stop buying Malaysian palm oil following a political row between the two countries.

Dr Mahathir, in December last year, spoke out against India's then recently-approved citizenship legislation, which appeared discriminatory towards Muslims.