The US biodiesel industry hit back at its European competition after the European Union announced it would probe whether growing imports of US biodiesel violate trade rules.

“The allegations of harm leveled by the European biodiesel industry in these trade complaints are baseless ... The European biodiesel industry is not being harmed by US competition,” said Manning Feraci, an official at the National Biodiesel Board.
The EU’s executive Commission said it found sufficient evidence to warrant anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations, which will last up to nine months.
Especially problematic in European producers’ eyes are US blender subsidies they say put them at a disadvantage.
The intensification of the latest trans-Atlantic trade spat comes several days after President George W. Bush met with European officials in Slovenia for a farewell US-EU summit.
It is unclear whether the US industry will push for action against EU fuel specifications. US trade officials were not immediately available to comment.
Feraci did not mention a counter-case specifically, but said the US industry would “employ every tool available to challenge existing EU trade barriers that provide preferential treatment to European biodiesel producers.”
The US industry sees other causes behind the Europeans’ woes.