US Biodiesel Industry Files Petition

The US National Biodiesel Board (NBB), which is an industry association, has filed an anti-dumping and countervailing petition with the US Department of Commerce and US International Trade Commission, against Argentine and Indonesian biodiesel imports.

Submitted on behalf of the NBB Fair Trade Coalition, comprising the NBB and domestic biodiesel producers, the complaint claimed that companies from Argentina and Indonesia are violating trade laws by flooding the US market with “dumped and subsidised” biodiesel.

NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen said the board is committed to fair trade and supports the right of producers and workers to compete on a level playing field, but called the concerned imports “illegal” and “unfair”.

“This is a simple case where companies in Argentina and Indonesia are getting advantages that cheat US trade laws and are counter to fair competition. [The] NBB is involved because US biodiesel production, which currently supports more than 50,000 American jobs, is being put at risk by unfair market practices,” Rehagen said in a statement dated March 23.

According to the NBB, biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia had surged by 464% from 2014-16 due to “illegal trade activities”, which had sucked 18.3 percentage points of the market share from US producers.

“The resulting imbalance caused by unfair trade practices is suffocating US biodiesel producers. Our goal is to create a level playing field to give markets, consumers and retailers access to the benefits of true and fair competition,” said Rehagen.