JAKARTA (Reuters) - The world's two biggest palm oil producers&nbsp;Indonesia&nbsp;and&nbsp;Malaysia&nbsp;will send top officials to the&nbsp;European Union next week to voice&nbsp;concern&nbsp;over&nbsp;a new&nbsp;deforestation&nbsp;law&nbsp;they believe could be detrimental to small farming businesses.
Indonesia&nbsp;and&nbsp;Malaysia&nbsp;accounts for&nbsp;about&nbsp;85% of global palm oil exports and the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;is their third-largest market.
The&nbsp;European Parliament approved a landmark&nbsp;deforestation&nbsp;law&nbsp;last month to ban imports into the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;of coffee, beef, soy and other commodities unless companies could provide "verifiable" information the products were not grown on land that was deforested after 2020.
Those in violation would face hefty fines.
Indonesia&nbsp;and&nbsp;Malaysia&nbsp;both confirmed the&nbsp;visit&nbsp;to&nbsp;Brussels&nbsp;would take place on May 30 and May 31.
Both have accused the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;of discriminatory policies targeting palm oil and&nbsp;Malaysia&nbsp;had previously said it could stop exporting it to the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;over&nbsp;the&nbsp;deforestation&nbsp;law.
The regulation has been welcomed by environmentalists as an important step to protect forests, with&nbsp;deforestation&nbsp;responsible for&nbsp;about&nbsp;10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the&nbsp;law&nbsp;would burden smallholders with onerous administrative procedures.
"The&nbsp;law&nbsp;could exclude the important role of smallholders in the global supply chain and fail to recognise their significance and rights," Airlangga said in a statement.
Airlangga will make the&nbsp;Brussels&nbsp;trip with&nbsp;Malaysia's Commodities Minister Fadillah Yusof. The mission will seek to discuss ways of minimising negative impacts of the&nbsp;law, especially on smallholders, the statement said.
EU&nbsp;diplomats have denied the bloc is seeking to ban imports of palm oil and said the&nbsp;law&nbsp;applies equally to commodities produced anywhere.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Bernadette Christina; Editing by Martin Petty)

you might like

Indonesia, Malaysia to visit Brussels over concern about EU deforestation law