Brussels, 30/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU ProSun association is taking the EU agreement to the Court of Justice of the EU. In ProSun's view, the agreement is based on a floor price which is only at the current level of Chinese dumping.
European solar panel manufacturers - united under the banner of the EU ProSun association which was behind the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into solar panels launched in September and November 2012 respectively - are not backing down. The informal agreement concluded on 27 July between the European Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Trade (see EUROPE 10898) puts their industry in danger, they say.
According to the Commission, the agreement is based on a voluntary price commitment from some Chinese solar panel manufacturers (70% of the total suppliers) which agree to stop dumping and to maintain their prices above a certain threshold. In return, these suppliers will not pay anti-dumping duties on the Chinese solar panel exports - duties which have been in application since 6 June and are due to increase from 11.8% to 47.6% on average, at the beginning of August. This commitment applies only for an annual volume covering part of the European market. For Chinese exports exceeding this annual volume, the average anti-dumping duty of 47.6% will have to be paid as of 6 August. By setting a floor price, downwards pressure on prices should be removed. In the other market segment, European suppliers will have to compete at world level, but they will be protected from Chinese imports by the 47.6% duty.
For the EU ProSun association, the minimum price commitment - which will enable participating Chinese companies to avoid the anti-dumping duties on their solar panel exports (applied provisionally since June) - will engender “further bankruptcies and job losses”. “The EU Commission argues with false data. Following this weekend's agreement the European solar market will be split. The EU solar market for 2013 is expected to be 10 gigawatts. The European Commission awarded 7 GW of this total as duty-free imports to government-subsidised Chinese solar producers. In other words 70% of the EU market will be given over to China's planned economy delivering products at dumped prices, and the remaining 30% will be shared between Europeans, Koreans, Japanese and other manufacturers from the rest of the world in free competition. This is far from a just agreement in favour of the European solar industry and fair competition. Therefore European solar producers feel obliged to file an immediate appeal against this agreement with the European Court of Justice”, EU ProSun stated on Monday. (EH/transl.fl)