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The ILT is in talks with oil companies about the Policy Rule and will start actively enforcing the Policy Rule after this ruling.

The District Court of The Hague recently ruled in the case brought by 2 fuel terminals against the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT). The 2 companies objected to the ILT's policy rule that prohibits the export of dirty fuels to low-wage countries. The court declared this objection unfounded and ruled in favor of the ILT on all points.

"The ILT feels supported in its approach by this statement. This means that much less dirty fuels can be exported from the Netherlands to African countries, for example. We can already see the consequences of this in our supervision, the quality of the exported fuels has been The introduction of this rule has already improved considerably. But we are still far from there and it is therefore good that the court has recently ruled in favor of the ILT and the policy rule can be enforced."

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The Netherlands is the largest export country of low-quality fuels to West Africa.

The Netherlands is the largest export country of low-quality fuels to West Africa. Following 3 ILT investigations, the Netherlands has taken its own responsibility. The ILT calls the sector to account for its duty of care and last August introduced a policy rule 'Fuels for road traffic outside Europe'. The core of the policy rule is that companies make every effort to prevent negative consequences of their actions for human health and the environment. From 1 April 2023, companies may only produce and export fuels for road traffic with a maximum of 50 ppm sulphur, 1% benzene and 2mg/l manganese.

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The ILT is in talks with oil companies about the Policy Rule and will start actively enforcing the Policy Rule after this ruling. The importance of this is further underlined by the request from UNEP and African ministers to the European Commission and the main fuel exporting countries. In this they ask to improve the quality of the fuel exported to Africa before 1 July 2023.  

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