BRUSSELS: China has until June 7 to negotiate a deal with the European Union on state subsidies for solar panels and mobile telephone networks or face possible punitive measures, the EU’s trade chief said yesterday.
European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told a Reuters Summit on the future of the euro zone the Chinese had told Brussels they wanted to negotiate an amicable solution to EU concerns over alleged trade distortions in the two cases.
The EU executive is preparing a report on the impact of Chinese government support for solar panel manufacturers following a complaint by Germany’s Solar World.
That could lead to the imposition of punitive import tariffs if the Commission determines that Chinese panels benefit from state subsidies, allowing them to be sold below cost and pushing out EU firms.
“Provisional duties have to be decided before June 7, and before the end of the year you have a final decision. And that’s setting the timeframe (for negotiation),” De Gucht said. “That’s also setting the timeframe for mobile networks.”
“It is the Chinese who have requested that we would have negotiations on a possible amicable solution. We have already have contacts, we have already sent people to Beijing, and the Chinese already came to Brussels,” he said. reuters
5,353 vessels docked at Qatari Ports in 2011
DOHA: Mesaieed Port saw the maximum number of vessels docked at Qatari ports in 2011. A total of 2112 vessels docked in the port during the year followed by Ras Laffan port with 1,944 vessels.
The total number of arriving and departing vessels docked at five different ports has gone up to 5,353. Their gross tonnage amounted to 272.7m, an increase of 14.8 percent compared with the preceding year. Net tonnage was 119.0m, an increase of 16.8 percent compared with the preceding year. Main types of vessels were oil and gas tankers amounting to 2694 vessels with a tonnage of 230.1m, an increase of 17.4 percent compared with 2010 figures.
Main vessels’ country of registration was Panama with 921 vessels, followed by Marshal Islands with 587 vessels and Liberia with 349 vessels, according to latest Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) data.
The Peninsula
