United States of America: Expiration of subsidy and tariff on ethanol

04/01/2012 12:00 - 370 Views

At midnight on December 31, 2011, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) expired in the United States. Under this program, an ethanol blender would be eligible for a tax incentive in the amount of $0.45 per gallon of pure ethanol (minimum 190 proof) blended with gasoline. Only entities that have produced and sold or used the qualified mixture as a fuel in their trade or business were eligible for the tax credit.

At the same time, there also expired an additional tariff of 54 cents per gallon (i.e., 14.27 cents per liter) of ethanol from most countries. That tariff had been imposed to offset the VEETC. Ethanol imports from countries that are part of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, Caribbean Basin Initiative, and Andean Trade Preference Act had not been subject to the secondary duty provided the ethanol was produced with feedstocks from those nations (specific feedstock percentage requirements also applied). The main target of the import tariff was, by a process of elimination, Brazil.

Source: globaltradealert.org