EU proposes imposing anti-dumping duties of €215-€250/tonne and €120-€180/tonne, respectively, on biodiesel imports from Argentina, Indonesia; European Biodiesel Board believes duty levels should be higher to cover full dumping margin

Allison Oesterle

Allison Oesterle

BRUSSELS , October 2, 2013 (press release) – EBB confirms that the EU Commission disclosed a proposal for definitive anti-dumping duties against unfair biodiesel imports from Indonesia and Argentina. The disclosure, which includes a duty proposal, has to be considered as an important move of the EU Commission to tackle highly trade distortive practices including Differential Export Taxes (DETs) regimes applied by these two countries.

The EU industry is suffering since years from the growing injury caused in the EU market by the unacceptable negative impact of such unfair trade practices. Since 2010, Argentina and Indonesia account for more than 90% of European biodiesel imports.

The situation is worsening every week: in fact provisional anti-dumping duties imposed last May were well below the level needed to stop unfair imports and market sources reports that very important quantities of Argentine and Indonesian biodiesel have been shipped to the EU during the summer.

The newly proposed levels for definitive anti-dumping duties are of:
-between 215-250€/tonne for biodiesel imported from Argentina and
-between 120-180€/tonne for biodiesel imported from Indonesia

EBB considers that such duty levels should still be higher in order to cover the full dumping margin identified by the Commission for exporters from the two countries.

Our industry strongly believes that in cases where trade distortions are so egregious and where raw material distortion are involved, the Commission, as it has proposed in its recent Communication on the modernisation of trade instruments, should abandon the so called “lesser duty rule”. The EU is today the only WTO Member to apply systematically this rule according to which duties can be set at a lower level than the dumping margin in case a lower duty is considered sufficient to eliminate injury. In practical terms this would generate the necessary increase in the proposed import duty up to a level where present unfair practices would be fully corrected.

In this case, definitive duties will have to be decided upon by the end of November “ By accomplishing a further final move to definitive duties including the full dumping margin of Indonesian and Argentinean biodiesel producers, European institutions have the opportunity in the next weeks to send a strong signal against unfair biodiesel trade and the very strong distortive effects of Differential Export Taxes (DETs) in international trade”, insisted Raffaello Garofalo, EBB Secretary General.
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EBB–European Biodiesel Board is a non-profit organisation established in January 1997. Today, EBB gathers nearly 80 members across 21 Member-States, which represents 75% of the European output. Biodiesel is the main solution to reduce emissions from transport and dependence on imported oil. EBB aims to promote the use of biodiesel in the EU and is committed to fulfil the international standards for sustainability in GHG emissions and sustainable feedstock. EBB is constantly working towards the development of improved and greener technologies.

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