Market News & Headlines >> U.S. Opens Biodiesel Anti-dumping Investigation

The Trump administration announced on Thursday it would open an anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation into imports of biodiesel into the U.S. from Indonesia and Argentina. 

The U.S. International Trade Commission is scheduled to make a preliminary determination by May 8 on whether there is a “reasonable indication” that U.S. producers are “materially injured or threatened with material injury” by imports of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia that are allegedly being sold at less than fair market value in the U.S. and being subsidized by the governments of Argentina and Indonesia. 

The move preceded a visit to Indonesia by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence scheduled for April 20-22 and was in response to a petition filed on March 23 by the National Biodiesel Board Fair Trade Coalition and its individual members, requesting anti-dumping duties on the imports, which they say have flooded the U.S. market and violated trade agreements.   

Biodiesel producers in both Argentina and Indonesia have rejected the allegations. Indonesia's biodiesel group said it had asked its government to bring up the issue during Pence's visit to Jakarta. 

"The Indonesian government, especially the trade ministry, will be cooperative in the investigation by providing arguments and supportive data and documents to show that there was no dumping or subsidies," Oke Nurwan, Indonesia's director general for foreign trade, told Reuters News Service.