The dispute (DS473) between Argentina and the EU over the latter’s
imposition of anti-dumping duties on biodiesel imports from the South American
economy has advanced to the panel stage, after Buenos Aires presented its
second panel request to the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body last Friday, 25 April.
The duties in question were confirmed by the
28-member bloc last November, following a European Commission investigation
into claims that Argentina and Indonesia – the world’s top exporters of
biofuels – were selling their energy product to EU member states below its
normal value, a practice known as “dumping” in trade parlance.
Notably, third parties expressing interest in the
WTO case do not currently include Indonesia, on whom Brussels has also imposed
biodiesel anti-dumping duties.
Friday’s development came within days of Argentine
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner forwarding a
request to Congress to eliminate certain domestic taxes paid by biodiesel
manufacturers, slated as an effort to support the country’s industry in the
face of the EU measures. The proposal suggested the tax concessions would run
as long as the duties remained in place. “We are in a trade war,” she said when
outlining the policy shift last week.
Argentina and Indonesia together make up 90 percent of the EU’s biodiesel imports and capture over
one-fifth of the bloc’s market share. Brussels alleges that the duties – which
see Argentine biodiesel producers having to pay between €217 and €246 per
metric tonne, according to local media reports from last autumn – are necessary
to level the playing field for its own domestic producers.
For its part, Argentina has lodged two separate
cases before the global trade arbiter. In a case (DS443) put forward in 2012, Buenos Aires objected to
Spain’s decision to implement a part of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive by
favouring biofuels produced within the trading bloc.
Although Argentina opted to put that dispute on
hold following Spain’s modification of the rules involved, another hit came in
May 2013, when the country filed a separate complaint (DS459) in relation to EU support schemes offered to the
domestic biodiesel sector.