Japan Opens Door to US Ethanol

United States corn ethanol producers will be allowed to export ethanol to Japan, after the nation's government approved a new policy to allow 44% of its 217-million-gallon ethanol demand to produce ethyl tert-butyl ether, or ETBE, which is commonly used as an oxygenate in gasoline, to come from corn-based ethanol. The announcement comes on the same day Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Florida. In addition, in recent weeks the Trump administration has started to explore the possibility of re-entering the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.Since 2010, Japan's sustainability policy allowed ethanol imports from sugarcane ethanol suppliers, because those gallons were considered to have a smaller environmental footprint. There currently is little or no sugarcane ethanol produced in the U.S.