European Biodiesel Board obtains provisional remedies in fight against Chinese biodiesel imports

The European Biodiesel Board, representing the European producers of biobased diesel, announced July 19 that it has successfully obtained provisional antidumping duties in its trade case against Chinese biodiesel flooding the EU market.  

In October 2023, EBB filed an antidumping complaint with the European Commission and the investigation was opened in December.  

In a predisclosure document published July 19, the European Commission announced it will impose provisional antidumping duties on Chinese biodiesel and renewable diesel imports in four weeks’ time, ranging between 12.8 percent and 36.4 percent.  

In the meantime, EBB will ask for automatic registration of imports during the predisclosure stage, bringing some relief to the hard-hit EU biodiesel sector before the duties go into effect.  

EBB will closely monitor these imports and, in the case of an increase during this period, may request retroactive imposition of the definitive duties.  

The organization stated, however, that it is gravely concerned at the EU’s unexpected exclusion of dumped Chinese sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from these provisional measures.  

In the interests of the EU, EBB expects the European Commission to address unfair trade from Chinese SAF producers, which would otherwise seriously damage the industry and lead to a reliance on China in the future, the association stated, adding that it will be addressing this issue with the regulators as a matter of priority.  

“Today we obtained measures that will start to rebalance the scales,” said EBB President Dickon Posnett. “Our next step is to work with the EU to close loopholes that will otherwise undermine this good work, and also to work with member states and the commission to ensure any fraudulent practices are dealt with in the future by a more robust sustainability certification system. Our European businesses have been suffering for far too long under the pressure of unfairly priced Chinese imports and we are very happy to see the European Commission take action. As EBB we remain determined to defend the biodiesel industry’s interests and reestablish a fair trading environment.”   

After its earlier success in identifying evidence of fraudulent practices and stopping the suspected reexporting of Indonesian biodiesel through the Port of Hainan in China, EBB addressed the unfair practices from Chinese biodiesel producers through the initiation of an antidumping investigation.  

“In this case, it now also achieved a successful result,” EBB stated. “The European Commission has always been reactive to tackle unfair trade in the biodiesel sector. Today, it has shown its continued commitment to restore a level playing field in the European Union and we will be pressing for it to be extended to the SAF sector.”