On Monday 25 September, the agricultural organisations and cooperatives of the EU (Copa and Cogeca) called on the European Commission to use the accelerated procedure to examine the current appeal of the European biodiesel industry against the EU's decision to reduce the anti-dumping duties in place since 2013 on imports of Argentinian biodiesel to the EU. Copa-Cogeca recommends that countervailing duties be brought in to protect the European biodiesel sector.
This initiative follows the publication, on 18 September, of the Commission's implementing regulation that lays down anti-dumping taxes on imports to the EU of Argentinian biodiesel in a range of between 4.5% and 8.1%, compared to the range used previously, of between 22% and 25.7%.
In early September, the member states of the EU did not oppose the Commission's proposal to reduce these duties, to bring the EU into line with the judgment returned by the WTO in spring 2014 and upheld by its appeals body in October 2016, in Argentina's complaint against the EU's anti-dumping duties on its biodiesel exports (see EUROPE 11836, 11857).
Copa-Cogeca points out that it is “obvious” that the EU biodiesel industry would be “severely impacted” by the “significant” lowering of duties, which would translate into a brutal reduction of its production and greater biodiesel imports from regions where rules on deforestation and conversion of land are lacking.
“Since European farmers are the main suppliers of rapeseed and sunflower for the EU biodiesel industry, they would be directly impacted, seeing substantial income loss and major difficulties to sell their oilseed produce. The overall loss of profitability would have a huge impact on the sustainability and viability of arable crop farmers, who would lose a way to diversify their crops to stay in business”, the organisations stress.
“The dismantling of the duties would also have a negative effect on the EU's capacity to produce protein-rich by-products, which is particularly worrying since the EU already faces major uncertainties vis a vis the import of soya meal due to the GM authorisation rules and the growing demand from Asia”, they conclude.
The EU's anti-dumping duties on Argentinian (and Indonesian) biodiesel, which were bought in for an initial period of five years in November 2013, aim to re-establish a situation of competition with regard to dumping under a system of differential export tax brought in by Argentina (and Indonesia) to favour their biodiesel. This system is based on a higher tax for raw materials (Argentinian soya and Indonesian palm oil) than for the processed products made out of these raw materials. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)