The European Commission has agreed to impose high, anti-dumping tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels. Brussels has decided to levy preliminary duties of around 47 percent on Chinese panels. The final decision is up to EU member states.
The European Commission will be able to impose the preliminary duties for half a year. Governments of individual EU states now only have the power to decide whether the tariffs would stay in place for five years or be revoked completely. In the latter case, fees collected within the first six months would be fully reimbursed.
China's solar industry exports goods worth 21 billion euros to the EU each year. That makes the current case the biggest anti-dumping action ever launched by the European Commission. The EU looked into the issue, because the European industry association ProSun argued that European producers were being illegally undercut by cheap Chinese solar products. The United States decided to impose tariffs of more than 30 percent on Chinese solar panels last year.
-tk-