Legitimacy of anti-dumping duties on US ethanol not put into question by EU Court ruling

Today, the EU General Court delivered its ruling on a complaint by US ethanol producers against EU anti-dumping duties on ethanol imports originating from the US. The complainants had requested that the measures be revoked, claiming that they violated the EU’s own anti-dumping rules.

In February 2013 the EU introduced definitive anti-dumping duties on US ethanol, after an investigation had shown that US exporters were increasing their EU market share by dumping their product on the EU market and systematically undercutting EU prices. The US is the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol, producing well over ten times more ethanol for fuel than the EU.

By its decision, the General Court ordered the annulment of the measure for just five US producers due to the methodology used when implementing the measures : it found that the EU should have imposed individual dumping duties for these producers instead of applying a general country-wide duty.