D1 Oils calls for US to stop B99 imports to EU

11 December 2007 12:07  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--D1 Oils called upon the US congress on Tuesday to take action against the dumping of heavily subsidised biodiesel on the European market.

 

The UK-based biodiesel producer said US B99 (99% biodiesel-1% petro-diesel) imports were threatening the whole of the EU green fuels industry, eroding the margins of refining vegetable oils and threatening sustainable crop producers in the developing world.

 

“B99 is clearly breaching WTO rules and cynically threatening the concept of international trade in biodiesel, and putting at risk not only jobs in Europe but also in those developing countries,” said D1 Oils CEO Elliott Mannis, speaking at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit in Bali

 

D1 Oils, which produces biodiesel from jatropha crops grown in developing countries, warned that 250,000 jobs could be lost in the developing world if the ‘splash and dash’ practice is continued.

 

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) has estimated that that 700,000 tonnes of US B99 biodiesel blends have entered the European market in 2007, taking advantage of legislation which allows the product to benefit from both US federal and EU subsidies promoting biofuels.

 

Last week, the EBB decided to take legal action an over the imports, lodging an official complaint with the European Commission.

 

The US National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has defended the subsidies, arguing that imported as well as US domestic produced biodiesel gets the same $1/gal blenders excise tax credit.

 

Bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels.

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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