Europe to crack down on flood of Chinese biodiesel with tariffs

The European Union is cracking down on Chinese biodiesel imports after investigating complaints that a flood of unfairly priced renewable fuel is undercutting producers in the bloc and hurting workers. 

The European Commission will impose provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese imports of biofuels in four weeks, ranging from 12.8% to 36.4%, the European Biodiesel Board said in a statement, citing a document from regulators. 

“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,” EBB President Dickon Posnett said.  

The finding comes as EU fuel producers worry about being undermined by companies in Asia that are possibly mixing fuels with cheaper ingredients and then mislabeling them to qualify for incentives outlined by the 27-nation bloc’s renewable energy targets. Similar concerns have taken hold in the US, where business groups are urging the Biden administration to boost levies on Chinese used cooking oil used to make low-carbon fuels. 

The duties will be positive for EU producers, though the region has built up an ample supply of biodiesel that any immediate impacts could be muted, according to Brett Gibbs, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The EBB, which represents European biodiesel producers and filed its complaint over Chinese biodiesel last year, said on Friday that it is “gravely concerned” that the EU didn’t include Chinese sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, from the anti-dumping measures. The group said it will address the matter with regulators as a top priority.