Keith Bradsher explains that the European Union has
opened an anti-dumping case against Chinese solar panel companies. With last year’s
imports worth $26.5 billion, a whole 6.5% of Europe’s imported goods from
China, some are saying these products are being exported for a lot less than
what it costs to make them. In light of the daring investigation, the Minister
of Commerce spokesman in China has
warned that this action may have detrimental harm on the global development of
clean energy. Not only that, but this is also feeding the fire to the ongoing trade
battle between the U.S. and China; in March an anti-subsidy tariff was placed
on China as high as 4.73%, and an anti-dumping tariff was added in May against
the solar panels dipping as low as 31%. The Chinese have also accused American
polysilicon producers of unfair trade techniques and are already threatening to
place steep tariffs on them. Polysilicon is a key resource in the making of
solar panels, and since the anti-dumping case covers everything from completely
assembled solar panels to the cells and wafers that are the basic components of
these panels, American producers may find themselves spending more to ship
polysilicon. Alan Wolff, the leading trade lawyer in the world, is calling this
the biggest anti-dumping case ever. The European case is slightly altered from
that of the American case in that Europe’s is limited to anti-dumping and does
not include an anti-subsidy charge, and not to mention the wide spectrum of
items involved (cells, wafers, etc.).
No comments:
Post a Comment