In a letter delivered to Secretary Vilsack and Ambassador Kirk, the group is requesting a meeting with USDA and USTR to consider options for responding to trade barriers resulting from and influenced by the RED. The letter asks USDA and USTR to place an immediate priority on seeking to initiate bilateral negotiations between governments. Further, the group asks USDA and USTR to communicate with third country governments regarding the implications of and needed response to the RED.
ASA believes a highly coordinated effort is needed to identify and respond to the immediate, as well as longer-term, market threats resulting from RED implementation.
"Trade reports indicate that, since the RED was implemented by Germany on Jan. 1, U.S. soybean exports to that country have declined significantly, and soybean oil processed in the EU from U.S. soybeans is being re-exported out of the E.U.," said ASA First Vice-President Steve Wellman, a soybean producer from Syracuse, Nebraska, U.S. "As other member states transpose the RED into national law, ASA anticipates the economic viability of exporting U.S. soybeans to the E.U. will be further eroded, and that a $1 billion market could be lost."
In order for biofuels to qualify for E.U. tax credits and use mandates, the RED requires that biofuel feedstocks must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 35% by 2013, and by 50% by 2017, compared to petroleum diesel.
Based on Brazilian production and transportation data, the E.U. set the greenhouse gas savings default value for soy biodiesel at 31%, short of the 35% reduction required. This disqualifies soy as a feedstock for biodiesel. E.U.-grown rapeseed however passed with a 38% value. Since virtually all of the soybean oil processed from U.S. soybeans in the E.U. is used in biodiesel production, disqualification jeopardizes $1 billion in annual sales of soybeans to E.U. markets.
A study funded by the United Soybean Board (USB) used actual U.S. production and transportation data to show that U.S. soy biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emission by up to 52%. This study has been shared with USDA, USTR and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and has been submitted to the E.U.’s Joint Research Centre for their consideration and approval.
"The RED also requires a ‘proof of sustainability’ certification that biofuel feedstocks were produced on farms that have not been converted from high carbon density lands, such as rain forests," Wellman added. "This approach does not provide for acceptance of the existing U.S. approach to conservation and environmental sustainability that may well be of higher value than the RED requirements in attaining its objectives."
"ASA is also concerned by the possibility that, unless a workable approach to the RED is found, it will establish a precedent for other countries imposing environmental and sustainability requirements on U.S. agriculture," Wellman said. "Germany’s current implementation of this Directive represents a process mandate for systems of production and marketing that act as undue and unjustified trade barriers to imports of U.S. products."
