Indecopi: Peru ratifies tariff fence for subsidized biodiesel from Argentina

The National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) rejected the questions about the initiation of an examination procedure due to the expiry of measures to the anti-dumping duties imposed on the imports of biodiesel, which started in September 2020.

In accordance with Resolution No. 265-2021 / CDB-INDECOPI, published this Wednesday, November 3, the Commission on Dumping, Subsidies and Elimination of Non-Tariff Trade Barriers (CDB) did not admit the questions raised by the Argentine Chamber of Biofuels and the government of the Argentine Republic.

In this way, the autonomous body maintains for a period of five years, the validity of the compensatory duties imposed on Argentine biodiesel imports. This period will be counted as of January 29, 2021, the expiration date of the period of validity of the countervailing duties in question, as established in 2016.

Background

In October 2016, Indecopi determined, in the first administrative instance, to apply antidumping duties to the importation of biodiesel originating in the Republic of Argentina, in order to balance the conditions of competition in said market within the country.

This is based on an investigation carried out by the CDB that had discovered that Argentine biodiesel exporting companies made shipments of this product to Peru with dumping margins of between 17% and 31.6%, that is, the product entered the country with a significant undervaluation of their prices, compared to the prices of biodiesel produced in our territory.

In 2018, the Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition of the Indecopi Court (SDC) ratified, in the second and last administrative instance, the application of definitive countervailing duties and anti-dumping duties to imports of said fuel. In December of that same year, Argentina filed a complaint against the Peru before the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“The complaint before the WTO is very important. (Peru) is a market that, although it does not have the flow that Europe or the United States can have, it was one of our traditional buyers, ”Luis Zubizarreta, president of the Argentine Chamber of Biodiesel (CARBIO), told Reuters on December 5. of that year.

A year later, with Alberto Fernández in office, the process was resumed, arguing that there had been “changes in circumstances”. Thus, the case driven by Argentine Chamber of Biofuels (Carbio) was reopened in our country.

This is not the only setback for Argentina, since in September 2021 the United States Court of International Trade ruled against a request for the tariffs imposed on its biofuel in 2018 to be reviewed.

With information from Reuters and América Económica.