Indonesia protests US imposed biodiesel duties

The Indonesian government has submitted a complaint to the WTO over the US’ National Biodiesel Board’s (NBB) petition to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties against dumped and subsidised biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia.

“Of course we feel that this is a disadvantage for us. We have already lodged our complaints with the WTO,” said Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, according to Jakarta Post.

The NBB was following the actions of the EU, which in 2013 increased duties from 8.8% to 20.5% for Indonesian producers and to between 22% and 25.7% for Argentine producers, to apply for five years in both cases. The imposition of the tariffs saw Indonesian biodiesel sales to the EU drop to less than a half of their 2012 level. 

Between 2014 and 2016, Indonesia’ biodiesel exports to the US shot up by 117% to 350,176 tons (312,657 EU tonnes) of biodiesel per year, or 93.75 percent of Indonesia’s total biodiesel exports in 2016.

Recently, Raffaello Garofalo, Secretary General of the European Biodiesel Board, offered his support for the NBB’s tariffs. He claimed that the ‘unfair’ practices being carried out by Indonesia and Argentina post a significant threat to the international biodiesel market’s level playing field.