Brussels, 29/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - As for its practice of dumping which boosts its exports, China has been slammed for the subsidies it provides to its solar panels manufacturers.
On 28 August, the European Commission announced that it had completed its anti-subsidy investigation focusing on imports of Chinese solar panels - an investigation that was started at the beginning of November 2012 (see EUROPE 10726) - and that it had communicated its conclusions to the stakeholders - Chinese authorities and manufacturers, and European importers and installers - who will now submit their observations. “The Commission will take account of these comments in order to determine the definitive action to undertake. It will then be up to the member states to take a final decision at the beginning of December”, said John Clancy, the spokesperson for European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht (our translation).
This investigation is confidential but, according to EU ProSun (the industry association at the origin of the complaint, bringing together some of the European companies from the photovoltaic sector), it concludes that the Chinese government gives Chinese manufacturers subsidies of up to 11.5% of their sales turnover. “The list of Chinese subsidies (…) includes subsidies for discounted raw materials, discounted electricity, marketing subsidies and State Bank financing, and these have created huge overcapacity and supported otherwise non-competitive companies”, EU ProSun states in a press release.
The European Commission and Chinese authorities reached a provisional agreement at the end of July on a minimum price for exports of Chinese solar panels, as part of the anti-dumping investigation started in September 2012 (see EUROPE 10683), which threatened to degenerate into a trade war. The agreement enabled an end to be put to the provisional anti-dumping duties applied to Chinese exports since June, provided that they respect a floor price (see EUROPE 10902). This agreement will apply until 2015, while awaiting the entry into force of definitive measures on which the 28 EU member states will decide in December.
However, in the view of EU ProSun, which is also at the origin of the anti-dumping complaint, this agreement does not resolve the issue of subsidies because it does not force Beijing to put an end to them. EU ProSun is therefore calling on the EU to impose compensatory duties on top of the anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels. (EH/transl.fl)