EU to set tariffs on Chinese biodiesel imports in anti-dumping probe, says board

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), representing the European producers of biodiesel (HVO & FAME), on Friday (19 July) said it has successfully obtained provisional anti-dumping duties in its trade case against Chinese biodiesel flooding the EU market.

In October 2023, EBB filed an anti-dumping complaint with the European Commission and the investigation was opened in December 2023. 

“In a pre-disclosure document published today, the European Commission (EC) announced it will impose provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese HVO and FAME imports in four weeks’ time, ranging between 12.8% and 36.4%,” EBB said in a statement on its website. 

In the meantime, EBB said it will ask for automatic registration of imports during the pre-disclosure stage, bringing some relief to the hard-hit EU biodiesel sector before the duties go into effect. 

EBB will closely monitor these imports and in the case of an increase during this period, may request retroactive imposition of the definitive duties.

However, EBB is gravely concerned at the EU’s unexpected exclusion of dumped Chinese Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from these provisional measures. In the Union interests, EBB expects the European Commission to address unfair trade from Chinese SAF producers, which would otherwise seriously damage the industry and lead to a reliance on China in the future. We will be addressing this issue with the regulators as a matter of priority.

The President of the EBB, Dickon Posnett, said: “Today we obtained measures that will start to rebalance the scales.”

“Our next step is to work with the EU to close loopholes that will otherwise undermine this good work, and also to work with Member States and the Commission to ensure any fraudulent practices are dealt with in the future by a more robust sustainability certification system.”

“Our European businesses have been suffering for far too long under the pressure of unfairly priced Chinese imports and we are very happy to see the European Commission take action. As EBB we remain determined to defend the biodiesel industry’s interests and re-establish a fair trading environment.”

After its earlier success in identifying evidence of fraudulent practices and stopping the suspected re-exporting of Indonesian biodiesel through the Port of Hainan (China), EBB addressed the “unfair practices” from Chinese biodiesel producers through the initiation of an anti-dumping (AD) investigation. 

“In this AD case, it now also achieved a successful result,” EBB added. 

“The European Commission has always been reactive to tackle unfair trade in the biodiesel sector. Today, it has shown its continued commitment to restore a level playing field in the European Union and we will be pressing for it to be extended to the SAF sector.”

In December last year, EC said it launched an investigation into allegations of dumping of biodiesel from China onto the EU market.

“If dumping is confirmed and is found to be harming EU producers, the Commission may impose measures (typically duties on imports) to remedy the effects of the unfair trading if such measures are in the EU’s interest,” EU said on its website. 

“The EU market in biodiesel is worth EUR 31 billion annually, providing a renewable alternative to fossil fuels in the EU’s transport sector and improving the EU’s security of energy supply.”

EC added the launch of the anti-dumping investigation is based on a complaint by EU biodiesel producers. 

“EU producers have submitted evidence of biodiesel imports from China coming into the EU at artificially low prices and claim that these imports are seriously harming their industry, because they cannot compete with such low prices,” it said. 

Photo credit: Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash
Published: 22 July 2024