EU: Exec receives request for registration of Chinese module imports

22/02/2013 12:00 - 446 Views

The European Commission confirmed, on 21 February, that it had received a request from the EU solar panel industry to subject imports of panels and their main components from China to registration in the framework of the ongoing anti-dumping investigation against Beijing. The Commission is now analyzing the request, John Clancy, the Commission’s spokesperson for trade, said. He insisted that this “administrative procedure” should not be misinterpreted. “Registration of imports of a certain product in trade defence procedures is nothing out of the ordinary,” Clancy said, referring to media speculations that the move could lead to the imposition of duties. “It simply allows the industry concerned to mark a reference date so that there can be an option for retroactive measures if the case concludes in their favour,” he said.

Following a complaint from EU solar companies, led by Germany’s Solar World, the Commission launched an investigation into the dumping of Chinese solar panels and their main components onto the EU market last September and another in November into illegal subsidies granted to Chinese solar panel producers. The anti-dumping case covers exports from China worth €21 billion in 2011. The Commission has until 6 June to decide whether to impose provisional duties on Chinese solar panel companies (final stage of anti-dumping investigation is in December this year).

Under the EU’s trade defense legislation, a decision on submitting imports to registration allows for retroactive application of anti-dumping duties for a maximum of 90 days before the imposition of provisional duties. However, a decision on the retroactive application of the duties is taken at the end of investigation.

The Commission has already received the green light from the member states on the registration requirement, according to sources. However, Clancy stopped short of commenting on it. “On the aspect of registration, as on all aspects of trade defence investigations, the member states are consulted. However, the details of such consultations have to be kept confidential by law,” he said.

Meanwhile, European producers and importers remain divided on the issue of Chinese solar panel imports. Unlike the producers, the importers of the cheap panels and their main components are opposed to any retaliatory measures. The Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy, a coalition of companies that install and service panels, said, on 19 February, that imposing duties would lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the European Union, the biggest export market for the Chinese producers. A group of solar equipment makers, including Solar World, fought back, saying that unfair practices had already meant thousands of lost jobs and 30 bankruptcies in Europe.

The fight over solar panels is one of the hottest issues in a series of anti-dumping disputes between the EU and China. Most recently, the Commission decided to re-impose a definitive anti-dumping duty (€531.20 per tonne) on imports of mandarins (including tangerines and satsumas), wilkings and other similar citrus hybrids not containing added spirit, originating in China (see Europolitics4591).

Thursday 21 February 2013

By Joanna Sopinska

Source: europolitics.info