Standardisation & Trade - Work Package 5

The overall objective of work package 5 is to identify research needs and technological opportunities for an increased and more robust trade of feedstock, biofuel production technologies and biofuels between EU and LA. Due to the importance of standards at regional and national level, research is needed to support the implementation and improvement of European and Latin American standards on biofuels. Furthermore, it is necessary to harmonise biofuel standards, regulatory frameworks and procedures for the development of technical standards and regulations. A comparison of existing biofuel standards of Latin America and the European Union includes biodiesel, pure plant oil and bioethanol. Within this, research opportunities and needs for biofuel production and standardization are be identified.

Relevant barriers and drivers for biofuel trade between the European Union and Latin America are identified and evaluated. This includes the identification of existing subsidies, incentives, tariff barriers, tariff escalation, quotas and non-tariff barriers. Within this task, an overview of WTO (World Trade Organization) rules on biofuels are elaborated and an assessment of tariff classification issues included (e.g. labelling of biofuels as agricultural, industrial or environmental goods). Furthermore, the treatment of biofuel issues in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM), the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), the Doha negotiations on environmental goods, and the Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) and the “infant industry argument” are considered as well.

BioTop Reports

Reports elaborated in the framework of BioTop WP5 can be downloaded here:

- Biofuels standardization in the European Union and Latin America (Apr. 2009)

- Assessment of research opportunities and needs of biofuel standard development and harmonisation in Latin America
(Dec. 2009)

BioTop Workshop on Standardisation and Trade

In order to stimulate research on biofuel trade and standardisation and to inform about EU-LA cooperation opportunities, an EU-LA workshop on biofuel specifications, standards, trade and improved conversion technologies was organized in Chile on 23-25 September 2009. In the framework of WP5, this workshop encouraged RTD cooperation and supported bi-lateral research exchange between researchers and developers in Europe and Latin America.

Information on this workshop is available here.