China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) Statement in Response to Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations in the U.S.

On October 19, seven U.S. photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers led by SolarWorld Industries America Inc. filed a petition with the U.S. Government for the initiation of antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations on crystalline silicon PV cells imported from China. The U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated the investigations on October 19 and November 8 respectively.

China-based PV industries express their strong opposition to the petition for the investigations, holding that the petition is a distortion of the current situation of China-based PV industries and their export of PV products to the U.S., and that any trade restrictive measures that may be imposed will unavoidably cause serious impairment to the sustainable development of the green energy industries as well as consumer's interests both in China and the U.S. China-based PV industries have formed a united front to counter the investigations and will defend their interests vigorously. For this purpose, China-based PV industries jointly make the following statements through China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME).

I. A Free International PV Market Is Crucial to the Cause of Global Environmental Protection

PV energy is the hope for the two billion people living in areas that lack or have insufficient availability of electricity. The following global understandings were entered into at the Bonn Conference in 2004: to explore and utilize renewable energy as a means toward achieving economic development and poverty alleviation, to promote energy safety and multiple energy resources, to reduce carbon emissions, and to address climate change. PV energy is a clean and safe energy that features zero emission and zero consumption, and therefore has immeasurable prospects of wide application. It has become an irreversible global trend to develop and utilize PV energy to serve the sustainable development of the human race.

Looking ahead, an open, free and fully competitive international PV product market is crucial to the continuous decrease of the prices of PV products and PV energy. Any man-made trade-restrictive measures or trade barriers will deteriorate the prospects of the international PV market in the long term, impair consumer's welfare, and eventually cause significant negative impacts to the cause of global environmental protection.

II. Chinese PV Industries Are an Important Component of the Global PV Industry Chain and Have Made Tremendous Contribution to the Development of the U.S. and Global PV Industries

Chinese PV industries have made tremendous contribution to the development of the global PV energy market. On one hand, for a long period of time, the high costs of PV energy have restricted its application worldwide as an alternative to traditional fossil fuel-based energy sources. The rapid growth of Chinese PV industries has been a tremendous driving force globally for the decrease of PV energy costs, and made the goal of grid parity a real possibility. On the other hand, during the last decade, Chinese PV companies have been devoted to the R&D of PV technologies, and played an important role in the application of latest PV technologies in production, for example saving of energy and water consumption during production process through the use of metallurgical grade poly-silicon technologies, and improving cell efficiency through SE, MWT technologies.

The development of the Chinese PV industry has been an extraordinary driving force for the development of the global PV industry supply chain. The global output of poly-silicon, a key raw material in cell production, increased to 160,000 tons in 2010 from less than 20,000 tons in 2004.