BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s trade authority plans to start an investigation into whether U.S. bioethanol exporters are receiving unfair state subsidies and selling their fuel to Europe at illegally low prices, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The European Commission investigation could result in import tariffs as early as next year on hundreds of millions of litres of the fuel if EU officials unearth evidence of unfair trade practices in the United States.

“The Commission wants an investigation, and EU capitals will not stand in the way, so it will begin this month,” said one diplomat.

Biofuel producers have been racing to secure a slice of Europe’s lucrative renewable energy market, where demand is boosted by official targets designed to fight climate change and wean the bloc off higher-polluting fossil fuels.

Specifically, trade officials will investigate EU industry allegations that tax credits in the United States allow its exporters to cut their EU selling price by about 40 percent, the diplomats said.

They will also investigate EU industry complaints that the price of U.S. ethanol is 15 to 20 percent lower in Europe than at home, the diplomats added — a practice known as dumping that is illegal under international trade rules.

The Commission notified EU capitals of its intentions this month and invited comment, they said. Barring last-minute reversals, the investigation will start by next week.

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) – - Bangladesh has thwarted a European attempt to grant beneficial import conditions to Pakistani textile makers as an aid measure following Pakistan’s devastating floods last year, diplomats said on Tuesday.

Europe and Pakistan had expected a long-announced plan for trade preferences for Pakistani textile makers to be approved during a meeting of trade diplomats in Geneva on Monday, but a Bangladeshi complaint effectively halted it.

“A meeting took place yesterday in Geneva. Bangladesh made a short statement saying that they have some concerns,” said a diplomat in Brussels who is familiar with the talks.

Another said Bangladesh had concerns about the impact of the European measures, which would make it easier for Pakistan to export textiles to Europe. Bangladesh competes with Pakistan for textiles sales to the European market.

The two year cut in tariffs offered by the EU would be a small boost for Pakistan’s exporters.

World Trade Organization rules say the same deal must be offered to all trade partners, so by making an exception for Pakistan, the EU needs to get all WTO members on side and any one country can block the deal.

Until recently India, Pakistan’s neighbour and rival, had objected to the European plan, effectively vetoing it. But as tensions between the two traditional South Asian enemies have eased, India signalled it no longer opposed the plan.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union bioethanol producers have asked regulators to investigate whether U.S. exporters are receiving illegal subsidies, a move that could trigger import tariffs on the green fuel, EU producers said on Wednesday.

Placed with the European Commission on October 12, according to industry sources, the complaint could result in a formal investigation later this month, and in provisional tariffs next year on hundreds of millions of liters of bioethanol from the United States.

“Massive and sudden imports of U.S. ethanol, combined with unfairly low prices over the last few years, have seriously damaged the economic situation of European producers,” Rob Vierhout, Secretary-General of industry group ePURE, said in a statement.

The case marks the latest stage in an intensifying global race to secure a slice of Europe’s lucrative renewable market, where demand is boosted by official targets to fight climate change and wean the bloc off fossil fuels.

“The unfair competition of U.S. imports is simply depriving the EU industry of the benefit of this positive evolution in its own domestic market,” Vierhout said in the statement.

European biofuel makers’ troubles have been exacerbated by cold weather and smaller fields than their rivals in the United States and Brazil.

In 2008, the EU imposed tariffs worth up to 400 euros ($552) per tonne on U.S. biodiesel and extended these to Canada in 2009.

BRUSSELS, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Moribund talks for a global accord to open up trade could boost world exports by more than half a trillion dollars a year if they were revived and completed, lifting global economic growth by 0.2 percent, an EU report said on Monday.

The Doha round of global trade talks — launched almost ten years ago at the World Trade Organization — has failed to reconcile rich and emerging nations over how to tear down long-established barriers protecting domestic farming, industrial and services sectors.

Attempts for a scaled-back accord have also failed and though no one has dared declare the round dead, trading nations and business have turned their attention to bilateral treaties, investment opportunities and the possibility of smaller sector-specific accords.

But a study commissioned by the EU’s executive Commission has found that liberalising trade in industrial goods, farm products and services and cutting red tape at borders could add $359 billion per year to world exports.

Exports could grow by a further $146 billion a year if barriers guarding sensitive sectors such as chemicals, machinery and electronics could be torn down, the report says.

Cutting red tape at border crossings – an initiative that the WTO has said should be tackled even in the absence of a comprehensive Doha deal – would alone account for $100 billion in additional exports, the study says.

DIVERGING EXPECTATIONS

BRUSSELS, Oct 31 (Reuters) – European bioethanol producers have asked EU trade authorities to investigate whether their U.S. rivals are receiving illegal subsidies from Washington and dumping fuel on the EU market, legal and industry sources said on Monday.

The EU could impose tariffs next year on hundreds of millions of litres from the United States if it can prove U.S. tax credits for U.S. firms that blend ethanol with gasoline are illegal.

Biofuel producers have been racing to secure a slice of Europe’s lucrative renewable energy market, where demand is boosted by official targets designed to fight climate change and wean the bloc off higher-polluting fossil fuels.

Europe used about 5 billion litres of bioethanol in 2010, with about 12 percent imported from the United States and Brazil, according to industry estimates. That proportion is expected to grow as EU producers struggle with smaller fields and colder weather than their rivals.

“The EU ethanol industry filed its complaint in October and now the question is whether (U.S. President) Barack Obama continues U.S. subsidy payments,” said one source.

EU officials must decide by late November whether to reject the complaint or start an investigation, the sources say.

If they opt to investigate, the bloc could launch duties at the end of 2012, which could stay in place till 2017.

LA HULPE, Belgium, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Indian and Chinese bidders are front-runners for deals to mine Afghanistan’s vast iron ore and oil deposits, the country’s mining minister said on Wednesday, worrying Western firms who have hesitated to invest in the war-torn region.

Afghanistan is estimated to harbour up to 3 trillion dollars in mineral wealth from gold, copper, iron ore and precious stones to oil, gas and rare earth minerals.

Such riches have attracted risk-friendly investors despite security concerns as Western governments prepare military pull-outs, in particular from India and China where demand for energy and industrial inputs is booming.

Two Indian bidders have emerged as “the most potential companies” among a short list of six to win a contract for the vast Hajigak iron ore project in early November, Afghan Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Belgium.

One of the bidders is an independent company and one a consortium that includes India’s powerful Mittal family, he said.

An oil and gas contract in northern Afghanistan’s Amu Darya field will most likely go to a Chinese bidder in early December, Shahrani said.

“Those companies that get into Afghanistan early will have good opportunities,” the minister added.

BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuters) – European Union governments approved a proposal to impose punitive import duties for five years on Chinese steel pipes used in the energy sector, EU diplomats said on Monday, dealing a victory to German and Spanish steelmakers.

During a meeting of trade diplomats and officials Friday, a majority of diplomats representing EU governments endorsed a proposal to impose tariffs worth up to about 68 percent on Chinese imports worth half a billion euros a year.

Germany’s Salzgitter and Spanish steel tubes maker Tubacex last year asked EU authorities to start an investigation against their Chinese rivals, saying stainless steel tubes and pipes sold onto the EU market at illegally low prices were hurting their profits even as EU demand recovered from economic crisis.

The duties, which must be in place by year-end, will replace temporary tariffs that had been in place during the investigation. Those had been worth up to 71.5 percent.

“The duties were lowered by a small amount because of a small technical error in their original calculation,” said one diplomat.

OPPOSITION

The new duties faced opposition from several EU diplomats, who questioned an investigation they said failed to prove low Chinese pricing has a significant effect on EU firms hit by falling orders

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU’s top trade official called on Beijing on Friday to address European companies’ fear of “retaliation” if they speak up about unfair Chinese business practices.

Speaking ahead of an EU-China summit, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the EU and China needed to build up mutual trust, and demanded transparency on Chinese state subsidies to industrial sectors, which EU firms say threaten their business.

European companies say they face extra red tape, intimidation and even raids on their operations in China if they complain.

“I am … worried when I read that European companies fear retaliation in China,” De Gucht said at conference with European business executives. “That is disconcerting and must be addressed; by us in our dialogue with China and, of course, by China itself.”

Chinese and EU leaders — including Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy — will meet in the Chinese city of Tianjin on October 25.

Their talks will cover the financial crisis, the G20 summit in early November and a possible launch of negotiations for an EU-China investment treaty.

In a report on EU-China business relations published on Friday, lobby group BusinessEurope said the EU should “develop means to protect its companies and member states from Chinese pressure and intimidation”.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Rarely has the recruitment of a new member taken as long as Russia’s initiation into the World Trade Organization, but perceived economic gains and looming Russian elections make the case for Russia joining irresistible.

The European Union is the main trade heavyweight still hesitant about admitting Russia into the WTO 18 years after negotiations began, but qualms about Russian auto sector policy are competing with a stronger wish to usher Russia in before Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a WTO-sceptic, returns to the presidency in elections next March.

Russia itself, while refusing to abandon industrial interests in the car sector, this month said it is only an EU approval away from membership.

Russia’s $1.5 trillion (965 billion pounds) economy is the largest still remaining outside the league of trading nations and the World Bank estimates WTO membership will allow its gross domestic product to grow by as much as 3.3 percent in the medium term and 11 percent in the long term, particularly by attracting more foreign investment.

“Reliance on oil wealth cannot sustain growth in economy,” said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog. “Putin will establish a very pro-business and pro-reform cabinet. Membership of WTO is a priority.”

Russian growth forecasts are compelling when the BRICS countries of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and their rising fortunes represent one glimmer of hope amid a deepening global economic crisis.

The car sector is predicted to be a concentration point of growth outweighing the cost of Russian demands on investors: automakers widely expect sales of cars, vans and trucks in Russia to double to 4.1 million vehicles by 2020, from approximately 2 million today, making Russia the largest market in Europe, overtaking Germany.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russia must join the World Trade Organization before WTO-skeptic Vladimir Putin wins presidential elections next year, but not before allaying European carmakers’ concerns, top EU officials said on Monday.

Saturday’s news that Putin — who has been openly doubtful of Russia joining the trade body — will run for the presidency in March 2012 elections, “indicates that we should act quickly, but not at any price,” German State Secretary for Economics and Technology Jochen Homann told Reuters.

A senior EU diplomat who declined to be named said:

“We need to bring this to a close as quickly as possible because of Putin becoming president.” Putin, who is currently Russian prime minister, looks likely to win the presidency.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told a news conference after a meeting of EU trade and industry ministers that there was a desire for progress on Russia’s entry to the WTO, but not at the expense of ignoring concerns over Russian investment rules for the automobile sector.

“There was unanimous support (from the bloc’s 27 states) that on the one hand we should do everything possible to make the entry of Russia into the WTO a fact by the end of the year but on the other hand we have to stick very clearly to some fundamental discussions,” he said.

The EU is the last trade heavyweight still hesitating over whether to allow Russia to become the WTO’s 154th member, but European industry keen to secure market share in the growing economy has been calling for swift admission to improve investment opportunities there.