Brazil-US Ethanol Tariff Discussions Pick Up as Expiration Nears
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) As the U.S ethanol industry confronts the reality that the 45-cent-per-gallon Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and 54-cent ethanol import tariff will end on Dec. 31, some industry representatives are ramping up efforts to extend the tariff beyond 2011. In remarks delivered at an ethanol industry event held in New Orleans on Sept. 22, Ed Hubbard, legal counsel for the Renewable Fuels Association, said that while the import tariff was designed to offset VEETC, there could be a need to maintain it, despite VEETC’s elimination, because of its usefulness as a bargaining tool in other trade negotiations. “There is a growing effort to ask Congress not to eliminate it immediately but to hand over a decision on what to do to the USTR (Office of the U.S. Trade Representative) so that they’re able to negotiate,” he said. According to Hubbard, RFA representatives were meeting with White House officials on Sept. 23 to discuss the possibility of a tariff extension. READ MORE
