EU trade authorities to place tariff on US bioethanol that is blended with gasoline in Norway, says group representing EU producers, alleging that American exporters are using Nordic country to evade levy
Allison Oesterle
BRUSSELS
,
June 4, 2014
(Bloomberg LP)
–
The European Union will apply a tariff on U.S. bioethanol to blends from Norway because American exporters used the Nordic country to evade the levy, said a group representing EU producers.
EPure said EU trade authorities agreed with its allegation that U.S. exporters of bioethanol, a renewable energy for autos, shipped the fuel to the bloc via Norway to dodge the duty of 62.30 euros ($84.87) a metric ton. The organization said the bioethanol was blended with gasoline in Norway and then exported to the EU as a Norwegian chemical that faces no duty. The European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s trade authority, has decided to instruct customs officials across the bloc to apply the import tax to U.S. bioethanol that has been blended with gasoline in Norway, said Andreas Guth, trade manager at Brussels-based ePure. The commission’s trade spokesman wasn’t immediately able to comment when reached by phone. “The sole aim of the processing operation in Norway was to avoid the duty,” Guth said today by phone. “The blended product, a mix of 52 percent gasoline and 48 percent bioethanol, has no use as a motor fuel in the EU. Before it can be used, it has to be further blended with gasoline,” he said. The EU imposed the import tax for five years in February 2013 to punish U.S. companies including Poet LLC for allegedly selling bioethanol in the EU below cost, a practice known as dumping. The levy followed EU anti-dumping duties imposed in mid-2009 on imports from the U.S. of biodiesel, another renewable energy for vehicles. European bioethanol manufacturers including Crop Energies Bioethanol GmbH of Germany, Tereos BENP of France and Ensus of the U.K. suffered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from the U.S., the EU said when introducing the levy. U.S. ethanol producers that also include Marquis Energy LLC, Patriot Renewable Fuels LLC and Platinum Ethanol LLC increased their combined share of the EU bioethanol market to 15.7 percent in the 12 months through September 2011 from 1.9 percent in 2008, the bloc said in February 2013. The commission’s “clarification” that U.S. bioethanol blended in Norway is of U.S. origin amounts to a fast-track finding of circumvention, according to Guth. As a result, he said, ePure is scrapping a plan to request a circumvention inquiry, which would take as long as nine months. To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Jones Hayden
Dumped Imports
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