HVO biodiesel anti-subsidy duty rejected; import registration ends

The Secretary of State has rejected the Trade Remedies Authority's recommendation to apply a definitive anti-subsidy measure on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biodiesel originating from the United States of America.GOV As a consequence of that decision, the requirement for HM Revenue and Customs to register imports of the goods concerned ceases on the day after publication of the noticeGOV. The notice supersedes notice Trade remedies notice 2025/13 on registration of imports of HVO biodiesel originating from the USA.GOV

Import registration under Schedule 4 to the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 works as a monitoring step ahead of a possible duty decision: the Secretary of State may publish a notice of goods under investigation to which a countervailing amount may be applied, and HMRC must register goods covered by such a notice. Registration preserves the ability to apply a definitive measure to registered imports, so that imports entering during the investigation period can still be caught by a duty imposed at its end; with the recommendation for a definitive anti-subsidy measure rejected, that registration requirement falls away the day after the notice's publication. The earlier registration notice had been published under paragraph 29 of Schedule 4, the provision that authorises the Secretary of State to publish a notice of goods under investigation and obliges HMRC to register goods covered by it.

Importers and customs brokers handling HVO biodiesel of US origin should treat the HMRC registration requirement as ended from the day after the notice was publishedGOV, and should not price in a definitive UK countervailing amount on these goods from this caseGOV. The superseded 2025/13 registration notice no longer governs. Contracts that allocated the risk of a definitive anti-subsidy duty on US-origin HVO should be revisited, since no such measure follows from this investigationGOV.

The notice addresses only the rejected recommendation and the ceased registration requirement: its operative content is the rejection of the definitive anti-subsidy measure and the cesser of the HMRC registration requirement the day after publication.

Legal basis: Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, Schedule 4, paragraph 29 (registration of goods under investigation).