Trade
ePURE closely follows the development of trade negotiations that the EU negotiates bilaterally with it's trading partners (such as Mercosur and Ukraine) and at the multilateral level (WTO and General Scheme of Preference (GSP)).
Regardless of the import duties which apply to ethanol, ethanol imports into the EU have continuously and rapidly increased in recent years - be it duty-free, duty-paid or as mixtures with other chemicals.
At the same time, EU ethanol producers have invested more than 7 billion Euros into domestic production capacity in order to achieve the EU target of 10% renewable energy in transport by 2020 set out in the RED.
Given this context, the EU ethanol industry's approach on ethanol trade is guided by the following principles:
- Further trade liberalisation can only take place when a fairly regulated environment has been created. In particular, the classification of mixtures needs to be resolved in such a way that it does not undermine the EU market and lead to unfair competition from abroad;
- Across the world most ethanol is produced within the framework of biofuels programmes that are supported politically and economically in a variety of ways. These discrepancies provoke competition issues that need to be taken into account when negotiating trade agreements;
- Renewable ethanol production is vitally important because it contributes towards reducing CO2 emissions, reducing energy dependency and is a source of job creation in all sectors of the economy. But for this to happen, renewable ethanol production should only be encouraged anywhere that it is sustainably produced and is produced for domestic use primarily;
- The trade of ethanol and the domestic production and consumption of ethanol should be balanced in such a way that the goals of addressing climate change, creating energy independence and long-term employment can be achieved. In the absence of such a balance these goals could actually be undermined. Striking a balance between trade and local production and consumption regimes is the only way to create a win-win situation for Europe and the rest of the world.
