The U.S. biodiesel industry is considering legal options as imports of subsidized biodiesel have continued to increase since the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Fair Trade Coalition filed an antidumping petition in March alleging that dumped biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia have injured U.S. producers.

“What we’re seeing is a vast amount of imports continue to flood into our ports,” said NBB vice president of federal affairs Anne Steckel on behalf of the coalition. “We’ve received information of potentially 75 million gallons of biodiesel flooding our ports soon, a significant increase from the import levels we saw in January, February and March.”

Steckel says they are considering their legal options, which includes filing a “critical circumstances” request that allows the government to impose duties retroactively on imports reaching U.S. shores up to 90 days prior to the Department of Commerce’s preliminary determinations, which will not be until later this year. “We’re taking the appropriate legal steps to ensure that we have accurate duties put on those imports.”

Learn more about the situation and last week’s biodiesel industry congressional visits to discuss issues such as moving to a producer’s tax credit in this interview: Interview with Anne Steckel, NBB