EU confirms reduced import duties for Argentine biodiesel
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union will lower import duties on Argentine biodiesel following a World Trade Organization ruling against initial measures in place, it said on Tuesday.
The EU will from Wednesday cut import duties to between 4.5% and 8.1% from initial rates set in 2013 of between 22% and 25.7%.
Argentina’s industry, which had been the main supplier of biodiesel to the EU, believes it will now be able to sell the product in Europe again at a time when the United States has just set its own measures to restrict imports.
The reduced rates will apply to imports from the Argentine businesses of Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus as well as Molinos Rio de la Plata.
The EU’s case was based on Argentina’s imposition of an export duty on the raw material, soybeans, which it argued allowed domestic producers to “dump” biodiesel at unfairly low prices.
However, the EU will keep in place tariffs of between 8.8% and 20.5% for Indonesian biodiesel, which were also set in 2013.
Indonesia, which uses palm oil to make biodiesel, has a case pending at the WTO. The Commission has therefore not proposed lowering import duties of the product for now.
Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Louise Heavens
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