January 29, 2018
BY Ron Kotrba
EU antidumping duties against Indonesian biodiesel are expected to be lowered, following a World Trade Organization panel report issued Jan. 25 stating the duties are inconsistent with provisions in established trade rules and must be brought into conformity with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. Among other inconsistencies, the WTO panel found the EU antidumping duties on Indonesian biodiesel in were set excess of the dumping margins.
A similar WTO finding was issued last year against the EU’s antidumping duties on Argentine biodiesel, which prompted the EU to lower duties from 22 to 25.7 percent to 4.5 to 8.1 percent, depending on the company.
The duties against the two countries first went into effect in 2013 after biodiesel interests in the EU claimed growing volumes of unfairly traded Argentine and Indonesian imports were injuring domestic producers. The investigation found that the dumping margin for Indonesia was between 8.8 percent and 23.3 percent, but in applying the EU “lesser duty rule,” the antidumping duties were imposed at the level of the injury margin, which was between 8.8 percent and 20.5 percent.
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