The National Assembly of France agreed to impose an additional tax on imports of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives used for the production of food products. An additional tax of 90 euro per ton (on top of the existing 104 euro per ton import tariff) is expected to be implemented in 2017. This tax increase is part of France's wider biodiversity bill that aims to reduce deforestation and protects French citizens from the negative health effects from consuming palm oil. Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's largest CPO producers have objected strongly to this higher tax.

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Neighbors Indonesia and Australia will resume talks about the Indonesia-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), a bilateral free trade agreement. The decision to resume negotiations in May 2016 was taken after Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas Lembong met Australian Trade and Investment Minister Steven Ciobo in Canberra on Wednesday (16/03). Previously, talks about the IA-CEPA were put on hold amid a period of severe diplomatic tensions between both nations involving the "2013 spy-scandal", the execution of two Australian citizens in, cattle trade, and the tough asylum-seeker policies of Australia.

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Stock markets in Asia as well as Asian emerging market currencies should perform well today after the US Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at its March policy meeting. Moreover, the central bank of the world's largest economy stated that it expects fewer rate hikes in the coming months (dovish outlook) as economic recovery of the USA is still fragile amid slower global growth and turmoil in world markets linked to low oil price. As a result risk sentiment improved sharply, while the US dollar suffered losses.

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Efforts made by the Indonesian government to convince France not to impose a progressive tax on imports of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives have had some success. According to the latest stories, French authorities agree to cut the proposed additional import tax from 300 euro to 90 euro per ton. Earlier, on 21 January 2016, France approved a bill that gives birth to a progressive import tax on CPO and derivatives starting at an additional 300 euro per ton in 2017 and then increasing to 700 euro per ton in 2019, and to 900 euro per ton in 2020. Currently, France's import tax on CPO is just above 100 euro per ton.

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