China blasts 'unfair' US solar anti-dumping move
By Richard Fu |
May 19, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA yesterday denounced the United States' decision to impose additional punitive duties of 31 percent or more on its solar products, saying America is sending negative signals of trade protectionism to the world.
The US Commerce Department said in a preliminary ruling on Thursday that Chinese exporters had dumped solar cells and modules at margins ranging from 31 percent to 250 percent, siding with some American solar companies, including the US unit of Germany's SolarWorld AG, that filed the complaints.
A final decision on the tariffs will be made later this year.
Shen Danyang, spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said in Beijing yesterday that the US ruling was unfair and amounted to trade protectionism. The tariffs will hurt both Chinese companies and American users, he added.
The move also faces opposition at home, where US critics said the tariffs could slow clean energy development and increase cost for American consumers.
The new tariffs would be in addition to the anti-subsidy tariffs of up to 4.73 percent imposed by the US earlier this year on solar panels from China. Chinese solar makers have denied selling products below market prices, instead suggesting that technology advancement and large-scale production had helped drive down production costs.
"These duties do not reflect the reality of a highly-competitive global solar industry," said Andrew Beebe, chief commercial officer of China's Suntech Power Holdings Co, which was told to pay 31.22 percent as anti-dumping fees.
In its investigation, the US used production costs in Thailand, which produced about 0.1 gigawatts of solar panels last year, as a proxy for costs in China, which manufactured about 15GW, according to Li Junfeng, president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association and an official of the National Development and Reform Commission.
"This does not conform to market rules as they chose a market that almost has no solar-panel manufacturing capacity as a benchmark to judge that Chinese goods were sold below production cost," Li explained.
He urged the US to make a correct judgment in its final decision, else China will take counter-measures. While China exports solar panels to the US, it also buys a lot of raw materials and equipment for its solar industry from the US.
The US Commerce Department said in a preliminary ruling on Thursday that Chinese exporters had dumped solar cells and modules at margins ranging from 31 percent to 250 percent, siding with some American solar companies, including the US unit of Germany's SolarWorld AG, that filed the complaints.
A final decision on the tariffs will be made later this year.
Shen Danyang, spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said in Beijing yesterday that the US ruling was unfair and amounted to trade protectionism. The tariffs will hurt both Chinese companies and American users, he added.
The move also faces opposition at home, where US critics said the tariffs could slow clean energy development and increase cost for American consumers.
The new tariffs would be in addition to the anti-subsidy tariffs of up to 4.73 percent imposed by the US earlier this year on solar panels from China. Chinese solar makers have denied selling products below market prices, instead suggesting that technology advancement and large-scale production had helped drive down production costs.
"These duties do not reflect the reality of a highly-competitive global solar industry," said Andrew Beebe, chief commercial officer of China's Suntech Power Holdings Co, which was told to pay 31.22 percent as anti-dumping fees.
In its investigation, the US used production costs in Thailand, which produced about 0.1 gigawatts of solar panels last year, as a proxy for costs in China, which manufactured about 15GW, according to Li Junfeng, president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association and an official of the National Development and Reform Commission.
"This does not conform to market rules as they chose a market that almost has no solar-panel manufacturing capacity as a benchmark to judge that Chinese goods were sold below production cost," Li explained.
He urged the US to make a correct judgment in its final decision, else China will take counter-measures. While China exports solar panels to the US, it also buys a lot of raw materials and equipment for its solar industry from the US.
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