WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — American Soybean Association (ASA) First Vice-President Steve Wellman and ASA Washington Representative John Gordley will participate in a meeting at the White House June 23 on the status of the E.U.’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and the impact the RED is having and will have on access for U.S. soybeans to E.U. markets.

ASA is meeting with Doug McKalip, senior policy advisor for rural affairs at the White House Domestic Policy Council; Michael Scuse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; Isi Siddiqui, U.S. Trade Representative’s Chief Agricultural Negotiator; and Krysta Harden, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Chief of Staff.


The E.U.’s RED uses faulty values for the amount that carbon emissions are lowered by using biodiesel derived from U.S. soybeans, and therefore disqualifies biodiesel made from soybeans from being an approved biofuel with the E.U., ASA said. The RED also uses a paperwork intensive, farm-level sustainability certification, auditing, and tracing scheme that is incompatible with the U.S. bulk commodity handling system. Unless addressed, these provisions will erode the demand for and the economic viability of U.S. soybeans in the E.U. market, and a $1 billion export market could be lost, ASA said.