Brussels, 31/08/2012 (Agence Europe) -German Chancellor Angela Merkel is recommending an amicable settlement to the trade dispute between Europe and China on the subject of cheaper solar panels from China.
On Thursday 30 August, Merkel, who was on visit to China at the end of the week, agreed with her host, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, that the EU and China should endeavour to resolve their spat over Chinese solar panels exported to the EU through consultation and without the Commission having to trigger antidumping procedures. After a meeting with Wen, Merkel told the press: “I suggest that the Commission, companies and China should seek to resolve the issue by communication rather than by resorting to antidumping procedures”. “There is still time, and the best way is therefore through consultation”, she added. According to some media reports, Commissioner Karel De Gucht may decide to open a formal investigation next week.
After being successful in a suit in the United States, where its American subsidiary at the head of a coalition of solar panel producers convinced Washington to hit Chinese solar panel exports with antidumping duties, the German firm SolarWorld AG, followed by other European manufacturers, filed a complaint with the European executive on 24 July against Chinese exports of solar panels. The European industry accuses its Chinese competitors of selling their technology at a price that undercuts costs in order to gain a dominant position on the European market.
In the United States, antidumping duties announced in May by the US Trade Department against solar panels imported from China, and which affect the products of 61 Chinese manufacturers, stand at between 30% and 250%. Back in March, the US government had announced taxes of 2.9% to 4.73% on imports of the three main Chinese manufacturers.
The European solar energy market is the largest in the world, with an established production capacity more than ten times greater than that of the United States in 2011. (EH/transl.jl)