INDONESIA PROTESTS AGAINST EC VEGETABLE OIL DUTY

  Indonesia has protested to the European
  Community (EC) about its plan to raise import duties on
  vegetable oils, which will affect the country's palm oil
  exports to the EC, Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh said.
      "Indonesia, both individually and together with other
  members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
  has protested against the EC plan to increase duties on
  vegetable oil imports," he told Indonesian reporters.
      "We very much regret the community's plan," he added.
      He did not say in what form the Indonesian protest was
  made.
      Indonesia is a major palm oil producer.
      According to central bank figures, Indonesia exported
  362,700 tonnes of crude palm oil to EC countries in calendar
  1985 and 301,400 tonnes in the first 10 months of 1986.
  Complete 1986 figures are not yet available.
      Finance Minister Radius Prawiro said recently that the
  increase in EC duties would add a new burden to ASEAN countries
  at a time when they were trying to strengthen their economies
  in the face of lower commodity prices.
  

