EU Anti-dumping Duties Loom for Chinese Solar Panels

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is about to propose provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels, sources said on May 7, in a move bound to further strain trade relations between Brussels and Beijing.

De Gucht was expected to propose the move to his fellow commissioners on May 8, after an investigation into China's solar industry, which annually exports goods worth 21 billion euros (27.5 billion dollars) to the European Union.

The bloc is the main export market for China, which is the world's largest producer of solar panels and related products.

The investigation followed a complaint by European industry association ProSun, which argued that European producers were being illegally undercut by cheap Chinese products.

ProSun also filed a separate complaint, on behalf of European solar panel producers, over Beijing's subsidies for the solar industry.

The commission made no comment on May 7, saying only that the "deadline to publish the results (of the investigation) expires on June 5," according to a spokesman for De Gucht.

The commission can impose duties with immediate effect, but EU member states must decide six months later whether these should apply for five years or be revoked, in which case the collected fees would be reimbursed.

The United States decided last year to impose high tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports, after a similar investigation.

The solar panel investigation follows several other anti-dumping investigations against China.

The EU has countermeasures in place for more than three-dozen kinds of Chinese products, ranging from leather and plywood to ceramic tiles and ironing boards.

A product is considered dumped if its export price to the EU is below the market price in its country of origin. In the case of emerging markets such as China, a third country such as the US can be used for comparison.