G/TBT/W/576  
4 December  2018 
(18-7645) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  Spanish  
 
  
EUROPEAN UNION – AMENDMENTS TO THE D IRECTIVE 2009/28/EC,  
RENEWABLE ENERGY DIR ECTIVE  
STATEMENT BY COLOMBI A TO THE COMMITTEE ON  TECHNICAL BARRIERS T O TRADE,  
14 AND 15 NOVEMBER  2018 
The following communication, dated 3 December  2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Colombia . 
 
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1.  Colombia appreciates the intention of the European Union to adopt a public policy to protect the 
environment through th e promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources.  
2.  However, Colombia shares the  concern expressed by Malaysia and Indonesia that the enactment 
of the policy should be undertaken in a manner that is not more restrictive than necessary and does 
not sub sequently create an unnecessary barrier to trade . In our view, according to the news received  
on 14 June, the agreement reached by the Council and the Parliament of the EU to eliminate  palm 
oil-based biofuels  as of 2030  would be inconsistent with the national treatment and MFN obligations 
contained in Article 2.1 of the TBT Agre ement and in Articles I:1  and III :4 of the GATT 1994.  
3.  It is our understanding that the agreement reached in the trialogue does not constitute the final 
version of this proposal for a directive , and that the EU legislative process provi des the possibility to  
suggest further amendments to the proposed directive . However, Colombia believes that it is 
important at this stage to record its concerns with regard to the WTO -consistency o f these 
amendments, particularly the provisions that affect biofuels produced  from palm oil.  
4.  We must bear in mind that the proposed directive provides, as a target  for 2030, that energy 
from renewable sources should account for at least 35 % of all ene rgy c onsumption in 
the European  Union and at least 12 % of the energy consumed by all forms of transport . Key to this 
target  is the definition of the term "energy from renewable sources", since Article 2 lists the different 
types of energy that qualify as "energ y from renewable sources", including energy produced from 
biomass ; so that in principle , biofuels produced from palm oil would be included in the definition and 
taken into account in calculating the  EU members'  consumption of energy from renewab le sources,  
since Article  7 of the proposed directive permits the use of food -based biofuels in transport up to a 
maximum of 7 % of final energy consumption.  
5.  Colombia considers the mentioned provision to be discriminatory in that it will not affect like 
products such as fuels produced from other types of vegetable oil, for instance  colza or 
sunflower -seed oil, and this is inconsistent with the obligation contained  in Article 2.1 of the 
TBT Agreement and Article I:1 of the GATT 1994 . Moreover, since the proposed measure  favours 
vegetable oils produced in the EU, it also violates the principle of national treatment contained in 
Article  2.1 of the TBT Agreement and Article III:4 of the GATT 1994.  
6.  All of this discourages  the use of biofuels produced from palm oil, and would  have a 
disproportionately negative impact in Colombia,  which is a producer of palm oil . We would  therefore  
be grateful if the EU would explain  how it reconciles this discriminatory treatment against palm oil 
producing countries with its WTO obligations on  national and MFN treatment.  G/TBT/W/576  
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  7.  Finally, Colombia  kindly requests  more transparency in the trialogue negotiations  so that we can 
have official public information on what has been agreed between the Council and the Parliament as 
soon as possible . It also appre ciates  this opportunity to make  these observations , and look s forward 
to the EU's replies to its questions.  
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