The actual tariffs, which will come into effect from 13 July, will vary from company to company and come in two forms. Tariffs meant to counteract the subsidies themselves will range up to €237 ($330) a tonne, while tariffs meant to offset the “dumped” imports will stretch to €198 a tonne.

In its decision, the EU Council the Ministers agreed with the assertion of European biodiesel firms that they have suffered “material injury” as a result of the surge of cheap US imports over the past few years.

The EU first imposed the tariffs on a provisional six-month basis in March 2009, but the Council has now made them binding until at least 2014.

The US-based National Biodiesel Board labeled the Council’s decision unfortunate.

Manning Feraci, the group’s vice president of federal affairs, says it has shown that the European biodiesel industry was not harmed by US competition, evidenced by the handful of companies that have continued to prosper.

“For those that have not [prospered], it is down to factors unrelated to US competition – bad business models, high feedstock costs, and detrimental EU member state policies – that are to blame,” Feraci says.

The flood of US biodiesel in the past few years could not have come at a worse time for the European industry, according to Amandine Licourt, project manager for the European Biodiesel Board (EBB)

She says the European industry had blossomed over the past five years in anticipation of 2007’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which mandates that all EU countries source 10% of their transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020.

As a result of the RFTO confidence in the industry was strong, investment was booming, and the EU’s annual production capacity rocketed to 20 million tonnes.

Then came the surge of US-made “B99”, eventually driving dozens of “historically major” European biodiesel companies out of business. Europe’s industry is now operating at less than 40% of its capacity.

“The timing could not have been worse; it was a horrible shock to the industry,” Licourt tells Recharge.