The UK government has rejected a recommendation from the Trade Remedies Authority to impose a duty of up to £266.68 a tonne on HVO biodiesel imports from the USA, ruling that the measure would not serve the UK’s economic interest.
The UK government has rejected a Trade Remedies Authority recommendation to impose a duty of up to £266.68 a tonne on HVO biodiesel imports from the USA, after concluding the measure would not serve the UK’s economic interest. HVO, also called renewable diesel, is a drop-in replacement for standard diesel already used to run ground support equipment, shuttle buses and standby generators without engine modification, and the decision, taken by the Secretary of State on 10 September 2026, means the imported fuel keeps arriving at existing prices with no new border duty attached.
The case, brought by the Trade Remedies Authority and launched on 17 March 2025, examined imports of HVO from the USA over an investigation period covering all of 2024, with an injury period stretching back to 2021. The TRA found the imported fuel was subsidised and had caused injury to UK industry, and recommended a fixed countervailing duty of between £258.10 and £266.68 per tonne. Its own economic interest test then found that applying the duty would not benefit the UK overall, a conclusion the Secretary of State accepted in full, as set out in the gov.uk notice confirming the TRA’s final determination on HVO biodiesel from the USA.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Duty recommended by TRA | £258.10 to £266.68 per tonne |
| Duty applied by Secretary of State | £0 (no measure imposed) |
| Investigation period | 1 January to 31 December 2024 |
Source: Trade Remedies Authority final determination, 10 September 2026.
Who this helps, and who it does not
The no-duty outcome favours any airport already buying US-sourced HVO to run diesel-dependent airside fleets, since the fuel stays at its current landed price rather than absorbing a duty of over £250 a tonne. It sits alongside the wider shift away from liquid fuel entirely: TLD’s move past 50% electric GSE production shows how much of that ground equipment market is already switching to battery power rather than a cleaner diesel substitute, and operators weighing HVO against electrification now have one fewer cost variable to model.
It is less good news for the UK’s established FAME biodiesel producers, who compete directly with the US HVO supply and gain no tariff protection from this ruling. Airports and their ground transport contractors running mixed fleets, such as the electric shuttle trial National Express is running on Stansted’s car park shuttle, should treat HVO as a bridging fuel for the vehicles not yet converted rather than a long-term procurement bet, given that trade remedy decisions of this kind can be revisited.
The ruling has no bearing on sustainable aviation fuel: synthetic paraffinic kerosene is explicitly excluded from the biodiesel description covered by this case, so SAF supply contracts and the targets discussed at events such as IATA’s fourth World Sustainability Symposium in Brussels are unaffected.
What to do about it
Operations and sustainability leads buying HVO for GSE, generators or ground transport should confirm with suppliers that USA-origin cargoes are still quoted duty-free, and use the saving as a data point in any business case comparing HVO against electrified alternatives, rather than assuming the current pricing is fixed for the long term.
