The EU's war on palm oil is about protectionism, not global warming

The headline is that Europe is waging a war on palm oil. But it's so much bigger than that. To hear Brussels tell it, palm oil contributes to deforestation and global warming, and thus runs afoul of "public morals" in the European Union (EU). Indonesia and Malaysia disagree. Both sued the EU at the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that Brussels is short-changing palm oil to protect domestic biofuels, including rapeseed and sunflower oil. The EU will lose this case, and Brussels knows it. Europe's handling of palm oil is no more grounded in WTO law than it is in…