The UK government’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has launched a review into countervailing measures on biodiesel imported from Argentina.
The TRA is the UK body that investigates if trade remedy measures are needed to counter unfair import practices and unexpected surges of imports.
Duty payable on biodiesel imports from Argentina ranged from 25%-33.4% at the time of the TRA’s 5 October report.
Countervailing measures on biodiesel imported into the UK from Argentina were inherited from European Union (EU) systems.
More than 40 EU trade remedy measures of interest to UK producers transitioned into UK law when it left the EU on 31 January 2020, according to the TRA.
Each measure would be assessed to see if they still served the UK’s needs, the TRA said.
The transition review would be conducted from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, while the injury period would run from 1 October 2019-30 September 2023.
The UK government previously reviewed countervailing measures on imports of biodiesel from the USA and Canada.
In November 2022, the UK government accepted the TRA’s recommendation that measures on fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) biodiesel from the USA and Canada should be retained at their current levels for five years from 30 January 2021, but that tariffs on imports of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) renewable diesel should be removed.
Trade remedies are usually applied at the border as a duty on imports.
UK biodiesel consumption totalled 1,789M litres in 2022, of which 97% was used for road transport, according to the TRA website.
