BRUSSELS, October 2. /TASS/. The European Union fully rejects any ban on diesel exports by the United States, European Commission (EC) representative Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said, adding that such a ban would undermine the trust in the US as a reliable partner.
"We fully reject any ban on diesel exports. A ban would not be beneficial to anyone. It would undermine our trust ·the United States as a reliable partner," she told a news conference in Brussels.
Itkonen confirmed that the EC was coordinating a plan to use diesel from European strategic reserves with the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the G7. She also emphasized the European Commission’s view that the decision to sell a portion of strategic diesel reserves on the market should be taken by the IEA, rather than by the US and the EU.
Reuters reported earlier that the US demanded that France and Germany, which hold the EU’s largest diesel stockpiles, release at least 120 mln barrels of diesel from their strategic reserves to lower prices on the global market and, consequently, in the US domestic market. Otherwise, Washington will impose a ban on the export of this fuel.
