Did the EU roll over on anti-dumping tariffs for solar?
Did the EU roll over on anti-dumping tariffs?
The answer to that question is hard to say exactly. What we do know is that we’re likely to avoid an all out trade war between the EU and China (rumors abounded that China was considering retaliatory tariffs on wine. The horror.)
So what is the settlement? The EU has enacted both a volume limit and a minimum price on Chinese solar imports. Sounds like a good old protectionist measure in which China is allotted a specific portion of the $28 billion European solar market with a regulated price.
The agreement calls for a price of 56 euro cents a watts up to 7 gigawatts and the pact covers 90 Chinese exporters that control 60 percent of the European market. The problem is that the 40 European solar-panel producers are not happy. Bloomberg reports they wanted an 80 cents per watt floor on pricing, which EU trade officials have basically called a pipe dream. Or in the words of trade chief Karel De Gucht, “If that is the case, then they will never be competitive again.”
So China gets a pricing and volume cap. And European companies complain that 56 euro cents is what they’re selling panels for now, so what’s the point. And everyone avoids a trade war. My two cents: if European panel producers can lower their panel costs over the next couple years they’ve got some hope since now Chinese makers will be barred from pushing down prices any further.
