POSITION PAPER OF REPUBLIC OF FINLAND

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION – VETAMUN 2020

AGENDA ITEM: Resolving the Palm Oil Trade Policy Dispute
Delegate: Ervina Dwi Indiyani

As food propensities have changed, the way of life improved and the utilization of biofuels become
more normal, the interest for vegetable oils on the worldwide market has expanded. The utilization of
vegetable oils has seen a close to six-overlay increment from the 1970s to the 2010s. The market has reacted
to the developing interest by expanding admittance to moderate vegetable oils. One of the strategies has
been to transition to the use of other oil varieties that are the most production effective; one of which is palm
oil. Specifically, Republic of Finland has been known to be a part of the third biggest consumer on palm oil
(Novelli, 2016).
Palm oil has been a topic during international discussion as it is difficult to avoid its use during everyday
life. Following its rising popularity at the international stage, several concerning problems relating to
sustainable and renewable energy has also risen along. For the past several years, problems related especially
to the production of palm oil have come to light. The production of palm oil-based biodiesel has been criticized,
due to decreasing number of tropical rain forests that bind carbon dioxide needed plantations which is believed
to cause climate change to accelerate. It is also related to other problems such as poor working conditions
for labors, food insecurity, and land conflicts.
Finland has been concerned and condemning the negative effects from palm oil productions. As a
member of European Union, Finland has enacted several EU’s directives and regulations into its national
legislation. The EU directives that most apply to the use of palm oil are the Fuel Quality Directive (2009/30/EC)
and the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) (RED) (Sonja Vartiala, 2014); also in 2018 the EU
concluded their Renewable Energy Directive for 2021-2030 where in the directive it is mentioned that each
member state is given carbon emission reduction targets in energy and transport.
But due to high demand of palm oil inside the country, the Republic of Finland could not stop the
imports of palm oil completely. To solve the conflicting problems between sustainable developments goals
(SDGs) of Finland and the use of palm oil in general, Finland opted to use another approach which is to only
use palm oil from certified sellers. The certification schemes include those most often used by Finnish
companies, just like RSPO and ISCC, as well as HVO, and also the certification scheme Neste Oil developed
for their own use.
The Republic of Finland would like to propose two possible solutions to solve this conflict. The first
solution is to amend the RSPO certifications criteria due to the nature of current certification criteria could not
protect the human rights problems of workers involved in palm oil productions. The second solution is to find
another alternative to palm oil such as sunflower oil or any other oil which has been proven to be more
resources efficient and effective.
Bibliography
Novelli, E. (2016, 03). Sustainability as a Success Factor for Palm Oil Producers Supplying the European
Vegetable Oil Markets. Retrieved from ISCC-System: https://www.iscc-system.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/Sustainability-as-success-factor-for-palm-oil-producers-supplying-
european-vegetable-oil-markets.pdf
Sonja Vartiala, S. R. (2014, September). The Law of The Jungle: Corporate responsibility of Finnish palm oil
purchases. Retrieved from Finnwatch: www.finnwatch.org.