Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 15 • 4th September 2009

EU Boosts Imports of Argentine Biodiesel

Do More

Subscribe to the BioRes

* Required Field

Email Address: *

Country: *

Employment Sector (Academia, Govt., Private Sector, NGO, IGO): *

First Name:

Last Name:

Organisation:

Enter the letters shown above:*

Download this issue

Volume 9 Number 15 PDF • 0.17 MB

After slapping anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on US biodiesel in March, the EU has increased its imports of bargain biodiesel from Argentina, says Switzerland-based biodiesel producer Biopetrol. European biodiesel producers are crying foul and calling for an investigation into cheap biodiesel exports, which they say are edging them out of the market.

“Increasing amounts of indirectly subsidised biodiesel have been coming to Europe from Argentina since the second quarter,” Biopetrol said in a statement.

European producers say they suspect biodiesel is being transhipped from the US to nearby countries in order to escape higher duties. According to Eurostat, Europe’s statistics database, Argentina’s biofuel exports increased by a factor of 20 over the course of a year. This represents a jump to more than 85 thousand tonnes in 2009 from just 4,293 tonnes in April 2008. Domestic biodiesel producers maintain that Argentina, as well as Canada and Mexico, are exporting beyond their production capacity.

Argentina also benefits from being a member of the Generalised List of Preferences, a list of developing countries that is allowed preferential import duties, which European biodiesel producers argue should not be applied to its successful biodiesel industry. These trade benefits will likely remain until 2011, unless there is any evidence that Argentina is selling US biodiesel as its own.

“The EU and the German government are once again called upon to act quickly to give European biodiesel producers the same protection against subsidised imports as in the case of [biodiesel] from the US,” said Biopetrol.

In March 2009, European governments imposed temporary anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs to protect their domestic biofuel industries, which were recently extended to up to five years (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 6 March 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/42454/). While US biodiesel industries claimed no harm was being done to European industries, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) alleged that US subsidies were causing their biodiesel to be much cheaper, undercutting European biodiesel.

“Biodiesel prices continued to be under heavy pressure, because large inventories of highly subsidised American [biodiesel] that had been established in Europe were still being sold on the market,” Biopetrol said.

In Biopetrol’s case, the added complication of the German government’s recent tax increase on biodiesel caused a collapse in their sales. Also because of high taxes, Germany’s biofuel industry association claims its industry is only working at 20 percent capacity.

ICTSD reporting; “EU Imports More Argentine Biodiesel: Biopetrol,” REUTERS, 28 August 2009; “EU biodiesel producers eye strike against Argentine rivals,” MLEX, 22 July 2009.