EU to extend anti-dumping duties on Chinese light bulbs

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission voted on Wednesday in favour of extending anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made energy-saving light bulbs for up to a year, a spokesman said.

The decision came despite a high-level EU drive to use more low-energy light bulbs and a push from Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to let the six-year-old duties lapse when they are due to expire in mid October.

"In the overall community interest, there are grounds to leave the possibility of continuing these antidumping measures for up to another year," Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told journalists.

"This is a rapid-changing market reality and so some transitional measures were warranted," he added.

In order to take effect, the decision to extend the duties, which can run as high as 60 percent, has to be approved by anti-dumping experts from the European Union's member states.

At the end of July, a majority of the experts gave backing to a proposal from Mandelson to let the duties lapse.

According to Mandelson's spokesman in July, German lighting company Osram, a subsidiary of Siemens, had led the drive to renew the duties because they hit Dutch rival Philips harder than Osram, though both compaines produce in China

Free-trade supporters and environmentalists were quick to pour scorn on the decision by the Commission, which has in the past urged consumers to use more energy-efficient products such as low-energy light bulbs.

Describing the decision as "farcical and indefensible," conservative British EU lawmaker Syed Kamall accused the Commission of putting "the interests of one producer ahead of the entire light bulb industry."

"The light bulb industry wants the duties scrapped, consumers want them scrapped and common sense says they should be scrapped; yet the European Commission has once again bowed to protectionist pressures," he said.

Similarly, World Wildlife Fund trade campaigner Eivind Hoff deemed the decision to be "narrowly protectionist" and "a severe contradiction in EU policies."

"On the one hand, Europe has committed to an ambitious energy efficiency objective and on the other hand it continues to impose taxes on imports of green products such as the energy-efficient light bulbs from China," Hoff said.