Published on April 3, 2025 on our platform
We provide the key takeaways for biofuels after yesterday’s reciprocal tariffs announcement.
In its announcement yesterday on “Regulating imports with a reciprocal tariff to rectify trade practices that contribute to large and persistent annual Unites States Goods Trade Deficits”, the White House had indicated that some energy products would be exempt from the new set of 10% reciprocal tariffs (specific countries listed herein subject to higher ones).
The official release includes a published list of HTSUS codes for all products exempt from the announcement. The list includes codes starting 2710, therefore HVO (renewable diesel) and SAF are excluded from these tariffs. Meanwhile, codes starting with 1518 (UCO), 2207 (ethanol) and 3826 (biodiesel) are not on the list, hence included in reciprocal tariffs.
The US imported over 1.4 Mt of FAME in 2024, with ~900 kt volumes arriving from EU countries (chiefly Germany, Spain, and Italy) which would now be subject to an additional 20% tariff. The major flow of UCO into the US had come mainly from China but with a meaningful contribution from European countries too. Most of these imports had stopped since the end of BTC and 45z proposed exclusion of foreign UCO (on top of China’s export tax rebate policy cancellation).
