Copa and Cogeca supported today the European Biodiesel Industry (EBB) decision to appeal against the EU move to dismantle anti-dumping duties on Argentinian biodiesel imports to the EU.
The move comes after the Commission published this week the implementing regulation to fix the reduced anti-dumping levies on biodiesel imports from Argentina.
It is obvious that the EU biodiesel industry would be severely impacted by the significant lowering of duties, which would translate into a brutal reduction of its production and greater biodiesel imports from regions where rules on deforestation and conversion of land are lacking.
Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen argued “Since European farmers are the main suppliers of rapeseed and sunflower for the EU biodiesel industry, they would be directly impacted, seeing a substantial income loss and major difficulties to sell their oilseed produce. The overall loss of profitability would have a huge impact on the sustainability and viability of arable crop farmers, who would lose a way to diversify their crops to stay in business”.
“The dismantling of the duties would also have a negative effect on the EU’s capacity to produce protein-rich by-products which is particularly worrying since the EU already faces major uncertainties vis a vis the import of soya meal due to the GMO authorization rules and the growing demand from Asia”, he added.
The European biodiesel industry will consequently appeal against this decision in the coming weeks. Copa and Cogeca call on the Commission to deal urgently with the European biodiesel industry’s appeal using a fast-track procedure in order to introduce rapidly anti countervailing levies to protect the EU biodiesel chain.
