Brazil warns Europe against biofuel import barriers

AFP - Friday, May 9 07:24 pm

BRASILIA (AFP) - Brazil on Friday warned Europe not to "distort" trade in biofuel, saying Brasilia was ready to defend its interests before the World Trade Organization if necessary.

The director of the energy department in Brazil's foreign ministry, Andre do Lago, said his Latin American nation -- the biggest exporter of biofuel made from sugarcane -- was prepared to discuss European concerns about environmental sustainability but would brook no unfair import restrictions.

"If Brazil is looking to export ethanol to Europe, it is important that Europe considers our ethanol to be sustainable.

"Now the issue is, as we all know, that all the countries in the world have a natural tendency to try to find ways to create barriers to protect their own interests and products," he said.

"Every time an issue like this emerges, there are concerns to make sure they are not hidden ways of creating barriers, and to see whether they comply with the WTO," he said.

Do Lago's comments came after a study in Europe raised the possibility of limiting biofuel imports that do not respect environmental and social criteria.

The issue is important, given current fears that biofuel crops are contributing to a spike in food prices around the world that, in some cases, have sparked violence.

Brazil, which is eyeing an EU push to have biofuels make up 10 percent of the bloc's total consumption by 2020 as a golden opportunity for ethanol exports, has fiercely rejected that argument.

The matter is to be one of the topics on the table of an EU-Latin America summit in Lima next week.

Do Lago said the idea being floated of an international certificate confirming that biofuel imports met certain environmental and social criteria was "complicated."

It would probably be better to arrive at a "reasonable understanding" instead, he said.

In any case, he asserted, "the most sustainable biofuel in the world is Brazilian ethanol," because sugarcane cultivation is seen as having less of an impact on food supplies corn or other crops, and is also a more efficient source of energy.

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