Brussels, 28/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - With Germany to the fore, 18 member states have refused to impose antidumping duties on imports of Chinese solar panels. Supported by France and a number of southern countries, Commissioner De Gucht remains firm in his attitude towards Beijing.
Le Monde of 29 May reports that China is defying the EU. It is testing the ability of the EU to maintain the only true common policy that exists, trade policy, it states. The United States did not hesitate in spring 2012 to penalise Chinese exports of cheap solar panels, boosted by dumping practices and subsidies. The EU, on the other hand, albeit a victim to sizeable injury caused by exports of Chinese solar panels to its market (of a value of €21 billion in 2011), may give up imposing identical sanctions, and most EU member states, including Germany, which is Europe's leading exporter to China, hope to avoid Chinese trade retaliation measures.
The very same day as the German government, which was being visited by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, confirmed its rejection of trade sanctions envisaged by the Commission against Beijing, leaks revealed that, on Monday evening, 18 member states headed by Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland - joined by Cyprus and Greece - issued an unfavourable opinion. That opinion was given during a meeting of the antidumping committee at the end of last week on the proposal put forward by Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht to impose a tax of between 37% and 68% (an average of 47%) on imports of Chinese solar panels and their component parts. This sanction was supported by France and a number of southern countries - Spain, Italy and Portugal - that wished to save the dying European photovoltaic industry.
As advocated by Berlin, which initially supported the proposal - given that it was a German company, Solar World, which initially filed the antidumping complaints against Chinese solar panels, first of all in the United States and then in Europe under the banner of the association EU Pro Sun - before being convinced by Beijing to give up the idea, Karel De Gucht does not rule out negotiating with the Chinese authorities. Neither does he rule out negotiating a three-way agreement with the United States.
John Clancy, the spokesman for the commissioner, said shortly after a meeting in Brussels on Monday with the Chinese deputy minister for trade, Zhong Shan, that the trade commissioner had indicated he was “ready to negotiate a solution on the solar panels case”. “However, the Chinese side did not put any specific proposal forward today (…) which is quite normal as we are not yet at the formal stage for negotiations which would only start if and when a decision is taken on provisional tariffs by the deadline of the 5 June”, Clancy said. At this stage, the Commission may impose the antidumping duties envisaged for six months, unless a qualified majority of member states (two-thirds of the votes) is opposed. Definitive measures advocated by the Commission will still be difficult to obtain, with a simple majority of states being sufficient to reject them.
However, in addition to his consensual attitude, De Gucht, who is the most liberal of the European Commission members, adopted a firm attitude on Monday and Tuesday towards Beijing and unfair Chinese trade practices. The trade commissioner clearly told Zhong that he was “aware of the pressure being exerted by China on a number of EU member states which explains why they are positioning themselves as they are in their advisory positions towards the European Commission”, Clancy said on Monday. Speaking before the international trade committee of the European Parliament, De Gucht said on Tuesday that he would give way to pressure from Beijing. He insisted that they will not impress him by putting pressure on member states, saying that it does not matter if this concerns the largest and the most highly populated country in the world - in his eyes, it was the same thing.
Zhong, for his part, described his meeting with De Gucht as constructive, also covering the question of possible antidumping and anti-subsidy investigations against Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei and ZTE. Any EU initiative on one of these two subjects will necessary entail a response from China, threatened Zhong. The “protectionist practices” envisaged by the EU are not acceptable for China, he said, and would greatly worsen the climate of bilateral economic and trade relations. The Chinese government would not remain passive and would take the necessary measures to defend its national interests, the Chinese mission to the EU said.
For France, Arnaud Montebourg, the minister for industrial recovery, and also the minister for ecology, Delphine Batho, reaffirmed on Tuesday their support for the approach taken by De Gucht with a view to rebalancing bilateral trade between the EU and China. (EH/transl.jl)