BEIJING: A recent complaint filed with the European Commission (EC), alleging that Chinese solar companies are dodging higher trade tariffs by routing their exports through a third country, could further damage an already weakened relationship between China’s PV sector and Europe, reports the Securities Daily.
EU ProSun, an industry group set up by European solar companies, has claimed that Chinese photovoltaic (PV) module and cell makers are shipping their products through third countries, including Malaysia and Taiwan, to avoid higher import taxes imposed on Chinese products.
It was an earlier complaint made by the European industry group that led to the European Union’s decision to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar product imports.
The latest complaint comes at a time when the EC has begun a review of a minimum import price agreement negotiated between China and the EU in 2013 to settle the trade dispute over solar products.
The minimum import price agreement is set to expire at the end of 2015, and EU ProSun has urged the EC to extend it, given the alleged unfair trade practices to dodge the import tax, according to the report. “It’s meaningless to determine who is right and who is wrong in the trade dispute between China and the EU. To ensure fair trade, one needs to have enough bargaining chips in talks,” a Chinese solar industry insider said.
The industry insider suggested that the Chinese government impose punitive trade measures on European companies in response.
Sources said Germany and China also reached a minimum price deal in 2014, but the agreement only regulates prices, while the 2013 China-EU agreement sets restrictions on both prices and quantities of Chinese products.
Chinese companies are also urged to source polycrystalline silicon produced at home, which has improved somewhat towards the standard required for solar products, in order to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.
Businesses in China have also called for the Chinese government’s strict enforcement of measures introduced to remedy the unfair trade practices and reviewing practices of South Korean and German companies exporting polycrystalline silicon to China.
