Brussels, 30/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission said on 29 August that it was opening an anti-dumping investigation into Argentinean and Indonesian exports of biodiesel.
The Commission is thus following up the complaint lodged on 17 July by the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) on behalf of producers representing more than 25% of total EU production.
European producers accuse Argentina and Indonesia of selling their biodiesel at low prices, through a system of differentiated export taxes on the raw materials required for the production of biodiesel, which artificially discourage exports of raw materials in favour of biodiesel exports, according to EBB. In their opinion this is a practice which has had a negative effect on price and the European industry's market share, thus affecting its performance as a whole.
Argentina and Indonesia exported 2.5 million tonnes of biodiesel to the European market in 2011 (90% of biodiesel exports to the EU).
The Commission now has 15 months to determine if Argentinean and Indonesian biodiesel benefits from dumping practices and to decide to apply definitive anti-dumping measures. In the meantime, it can decide to impose provisional duties over the next nine months.
It should be noted that the investigation was initiated the day after the complaint lodged with the WTO by Argentina on 17 August against Spanish restrictions on the import of biodiesel (see EUROPE 10672). In retaliation for the Argentinean decision, in April, to expropriate the Spanish company Repsol of its Argentinean subsidiary YPF, Madrid decided to limit Spanish imports of Argentinean biodiesel. (EH/transl.fl)