Indonesia wins biodiesel anti-dumping appeal

The EU has removed anti-dumping duties on biodiesel imports from Indonesia, according to Reuters.

It’s the latest development in what has been a long running controversy. Back in 2013, the European Union set import duties on biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, claiming that both nations were ‘dumping’ the renewable fuel.

The measures met legal challenges from both the European Court of Justice and World Trade Organisation.

WTO ruled against the tariffs on Argentina last September, cutting the tariffs from 22-25.7% down to 4.5-8.1%. Indonesian tariffs remained at between 23.3% and 8.8%.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade issued a statement on Wednesday announcing it had won an appeal at the European Court of Justice against the anti-dumping duties.

Oke Nurwan, director general of foreign trade at the Indonesian trade ministry, told Reuters: “With the elimination of these duties, businesses can once again export biodiesel to the EU.”

Europe is the world’s largest producer of biofuels, while Indonesia is one of the largest exporters of palm based biodiesel.

The ruling is likely to disappoint the European biodiesel industry, which has long claimed that imports from Argentina and Indonesia were damaging to the EU’s biodiesel market, and a threat to jobs in the industry.

The controversy is likely to continue, however. In February, the European Commission announced it was launching an investigation into whether Argentinian biodiesel exporters were benefitting from unfair subsidies.