Malaysia should not hurt India’s sensitivities; ties important in trade: MEA

By Naz Asghar
Jan 9, 2019
New Delhi: New Delhi has reacted to Malaysia’s criticism of its Kashmir action and the new citizenship law by restricting import of refined palm oil, of which the south-east Asian country is the biggest supplier to India.

Ministry of Commerce and Industry has issued a notification declaring that the import of refined palm oil “is amended from ‘Free’ to ‘Restricted, ‘ which effectively means that ban on import of the oil from Malaysia.

Though replying to a question on the issue, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that the Commerce Ministry order was product specific and not country specific, the order effecively means ban on the refined palm oil from Malaysia.

His further remarks at the weekly media briefing made it very clear that India’s disleasure over Malaysian President Mahatir Mohammad’s recent remarks.

While elaborating that the import of palm oil has not been banned but put under the restricted category out of the three- two other being Open and Prohibited, the Spokesperson, however, said the state of relationship with a country was an importany factor in trade.

The restriction was likely to benefit Indonesia which is the biggest supplier of crude palm oil to India, as the restriction only applies to refined oil of which Malaysia is the biggest exporter to India.

The Commerce Ministry order will also benefit the Indian oil refining industry.

Replying to a specific question on Mr Mahatir Mohammad’s criticism, Raveesh kumar said that India had conveyed its strong objection to Malaysia for its Prime Minister making statements about the internal matter of India.

He said India has very good age-old relations with Malaysia and ” we have told them that hey should keep in mind the sensitivites which we have on some of these topics. Unfortunately they keep on making such statements. We do hope that at some stage, they would realise that it is not an appropriate thing to do”.
—India News Stream