After ruling against the US producers in March, the EU formally slapped five-year tariffs as high as 41% on US-made biodiesel in order to protect its home-grown industry, which officials say was devastated over the past few years by the dumping of subsidised US volumes onto the European market.

But the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), a trade body, says that “circumvention patterns” quickly began to emerge after the tariff was put in place.

Five months after it went into effect, “there are strong and consistent indications that US subsidised and dumped biodiesel continues to enter the EU market”, the EBB says.

The EBB claims the contraband volumes are either entering via “triangular trade” with third-party countries, primarily Canada, or through fuel blends containing less than 20% biodiesel. The EU’s ruling, which remains in force until 2014, only covers B20 blends and higher.

“If and when established, these practices will lead to heavy and retroactive financial penalties,” says EBB secretary general Raffaello Garofalo.

Imports of US-produced biodiesel into Europe increased from 7,000 metric tonnes in 2005 to more than 1.5 million tonnes in 2008.