Bush: Eliminate ethanol import tax
US - President Bush wants Congress to drop the tariff on imported ethanol to bolster supplies of the fuel additive and lower the price of gasoline."Dropping a tariff will enable the foreign export of ethanol into our markets, which will particularly help on our coasts,'' Bush said during an interview Friday with CNBC television's Larry Kudlow. "And, yeah, I've talked to Congress about that."
Suspending the tariff could hurt Iowa farmers and ethanol producers, who could face competition from cheaper Brazilian ethanol.
Spot prices of the corn-derived additive reached $2.80 a gallon recently in New York, more than twice the cost of production, after refiners started using it instead of another additive in fuel sold on the East Coast and in Texas.
Congress isn't expected to go along with Bush's idea of dropping the tariff.
The proposal would have to get through the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia.
Soure: Des Moines Register
9 May 2006
1 minute read
