EU Herbicide Producers Lose Decade-Old Duty on Herbicide From China

The European Union scrapped a herbicide tariff against China, ending more than a decade of trade protection for producers in the bloc such as Monsanto Co. and Syngenta AG. The EU said the 29.9 percent duty on glyphosate, which farmers use to remove weeds before crop planting, is no longer needed since suspending the levy in 2009. The bloc said it’s closing a probe into whether to renew the import tax, meant to counter below-cost -- or "dumped" -- sales in Europe by Chinese exporters.

"The investigation had not brought to light any considerations showing that such termination would not be in the union interest," the 27-nation EU said in a decision made today in Brussels and due to be published in the Official Journal by Dec. 29. The European Glyphosate Association, which represents manufacturers in Europe, on Sept. 21 withdrew a 2009 request for another five years of import protection, according to the bloc. The EU imposed the anti-dumping duty at its current rate in 2004 before suspending the measure for an initial nine-month period in mid-May 2009 because price increases bolstered the European glyphosate industry, which includes Belgian units of U.S.-based Monsanto, the world's largest seed producer, and of Switzerland's Syngenta, the biggest maker of farm chemicals. In February, the bloc prolonged the suspension through this year.

The EU introduced a five-year anti-dumping duty of 24 percent on glyphosate from China in 1998 and raised the levy to 48 percent in 2000. In 2002, the EU extended the duty to Taiwan and Malaysia after concluding that Chinese exporters circumvented the measure by shipping via those two countries. The 2004 decision to prolong the import protection for five years lowered the rate to 29.9 percent and exempted Taiwan’s Sinon Corp. and Malaysia’s Crop Protection (M) Sdn. Bhd.