Brussels, 24/08/2010 (Agence Europe) - On 12 August, the European Commission published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ L 211) two regulations designed to open an investigation against the Americans, who are suspected of avoiding antidumping taxes on their exports of biodiesel to the EU by sending them via Canada or Singapore. In these regulations, the European Commission states that there is sufficient proof to justify opening an investigation.
Amongst other things, the Commission refers to “changes in the configuration of trade” in biodiesel. This shows “at first sight that the antidumping measures brought in on imports of biodiesel from the US have been evaded by the trans-shipment of the biodiesel via Canada and Singapore and by exporting biodiesel in the form of a mix containing, by weight, 20% or less biodiesel”, it states. The Commission is giving itself a period of nine months to conclude its investigation.
European antidumping taxes on American biodiesel were brought in in 2009, for between €230 and €409 per tonne and for a duration of five years. They followed a complaint from the EBB (European Biodiesel Board), which accused some of their American counterparts of carrying out dumping or of receiving unfair subsidies in the form of tax credits or direct production aid.
In a press release, the EBB states that shortly after the creation of the antidumping taxes, “new models appeared in the transatlantic trade in biodiesel, with American biodiesel exported increasingly to the EU via third countries, particularly Canada and Singapore, in order fraudulently to hide its American origin”. (L.C./transl.fl)