Opinion Commentary: Yao Lu
Dec. 20 – The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) issued a final ruling on November 7 stating that the U.S. solar industry was “materially hurt” by cheap crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells imported from China, thus allowing Washington to impose an anti-dumping duty ranging from 18.32 percent to 249.96 percent and an anti-countervailing duty from 14.78 percent to 15.97 percent on Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and main components.
A day later, the European Commission launched an anti-countervailing investigation into the importation of Chinese solar products into the Euro zone. This is in addition to an excising anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar panels which began in September.
These recent actions taken by the United States and the European Union have further strained their already complicated trade ties with China, and the Chinese government shows no sign of backing down from this solar dispute.
Two months after the EU initiated its anti-dumping investigation over Chinese solar products, China fired back by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization against photovoltaic solar subsidies in the EU on November 5, accusing the union and its member states (Italy and Greece in particular) of giving added, and illegal, subsidies to photovoltaic solar projects that used equipment produced within the EU. China has also threatened to evaluate its earlier countervailing investigation into polysilicon imported from the United States.
Furthermore, at the end of November, China again stepped up the solar dispute by launching an anti-dumping and anti-countervailing investigation to determine whether retroactive duties should be levied on imported solar-grade polysilicon from the United States, European Union and South Korea.
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