Indonesia and Argentina to challenge U.S. biodiesel duties at WTO

In Indonesia, the trade ministry is challenging the latest news from the U.S. on anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Indonesian biodiesel. The U.S. added more import duties on the already steep anti-subsidy duties on biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, essentially making it near impossible for biodiesel to enter the U.S. from either of those two countries.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the affirmative final determinations in the antidumping duty (AD) investigations of imports of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, as reported in the Digest last week.

Indonesia plans to challenge the U.S. actions at the World Trade Organization and the Argentine Chamber of Biofuels (CARBIO) also told Reuters that it plans on challenging the U.S. duties at the WTO as well, calling the U.S. action’s “arbitrary and illegal.”

“The anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty decisions against Indonesian biodiesel together represent a clear abuse of the trade remedy laws,” Indonesia’s Trade Ministry said in a statement according to Reuters.