BRUSSELS: A majority of EU governments oppose a plan to impose hefty duties on solar panel imports from China, a survey of member states showed yesterday, undermining efforts by Brussels to pressure Beijing over its trade practices.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, accuses Chinese firms of selling solar panels at below cost in Europe — a practice known as “dumping” — and plans to impose duties, making it far harder for China to gain market share.
The duties, averaging 47 percent, will come into force from June 6 for a trial period and could be withdrawn if both sides can reach a negotiated settlement.
This is the largest trade case the Commission has undertaken, with around ¤21bn of China-made solar panels sold in the EU.
The duties are being proposed by the EU’s trade commissioner, Belgian lawyer Karel De Gucht, who met with Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan for an informal meeting in Brussels yesterday.
But fearful of losing business in China, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands are among at least 14 member states who oppose the sanctions, diplomats said.
The Commission said China was pressuring some EU countries to oppose the duties.
“Commissioner De Gucht ... made it very clear to the Vice-Minister that he was aware of the pressure being exerted by China on a number of EU member states, which explains why they are positioning themselves as they are in their advisory positions towards the European Commission,” the Commission said in a statement.
The EU’s 27 countries had until Friday to submit a formal, written response to De Gucht’s plans. While the trade commissioner would still have the right to impose the duties, doing so in the face of member states’ opposition would be hard.
The Commission statement said De Gucht told China’s Zhong Shan he wanted “to examine the possibility of a negotiated settlement in partnership with the United States should this become necessary”.
Provisional duties will more than likely still go ahead on June 6, once they are published in the European Union’s official journal, officials say, but the pressure to roll them back before they become permanent in December will be intense.
Reuters
