European Commission plans to extend anti-dumping measures against solar imports from China

22 December 2016
by eub2 -- last modified 23 December 2016

Today, the European solar industry welcomed the European Commission disclosure, which proposes the extension of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on solar cells and modules from the People's Republic of China.

The Commission concludes that the result of the expiry reviews and a partial interim review, which will officially end no later than March 2017, should be the extension of the duties and Minimum Import Prices for an additional two years.

The European Commission carried out a detailed analysis and found that the measures were necessary to counter anti-competitive dumping and enabled the EU industry to consolidate and reduce significantly its costs, thereby putting the EU industry on the right track.

However, the recovery of the EU industry would be short-lived, were the Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy measures terminated, as the Chinese state-financed overcapacities – which exceed by far total worldwide demand and have been sold at prices below the cost of production – could easily be re-diverted to the EU.

"We strongly welcome the Commission's findings and proposal", says Mr Nitzschke. "European manufacturers today are global leaders in the quality, longevity, efficiency and sustainability of solar cells and modules. The termination of the measures in the context of massive Chinese overcapacities and unfair trade would put the EU industry's survival in jeopardy. Thousands of highly skilled workers would lose their jobs and the major R&D investments in recent years would be fully lost."

In the very short time since measures were imposed, the European solar manufacturing industry has only just begun to recover and increase production. “These have been difficult times for the European solar industry,” said Mr Nitzschke.

EU ProSun rejected assertions by Chinese manufacturers that measures would lead to uncompetitive prices and harm customers. “Today we experience record-low price levels for solar installations and for the solar electricity produced” pointed out Mr Nitzschke.

"The price for a household's solar installation is on average €2,000 lower today than three years ago when the measures were first imposed. This is because of technological progress and real competition, without the need for state-financed dumping from China," Mr Nitzschke added.

"It is therefore desirable that the Commission extend the AD and AS measures not only for 2 years", said Mr Nitzschke, "To maintain the measures for the standard time period of five years would reduce bureaucratic burdens, and at the same time increase predictability and certainty for the EU solar industry, which in turn would foster greater investments and quicker innovations.”

EU ProSun supports the Commission's initiative to start a review of the design of the measures in place. "This could help to make the tariff rules and Minimum Import Prices more transparent, predictable and enforcable, which would allow the Commission and Member States to improve monitoring and better discourage violations and circumvention", Nitzschke concluded.

More information: www.prosun.org info@prosun.org