The EU raised tariffs on solar glass from China, saying EU producers need extra protection from Chinese competitors.
The EU increased a set of duties aimed at countering alleged below-cost — or “dumped” — imports to as high as 75.4 percent from a previous maximum of 36.1 percent. The bloc imposed the anti-dumping protection against China in May last year for five years.
Chinese “exporting producers absorbed the anti-dumping duty in force,” the European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s executive arm in Brussels, said yesterday in the Official Journal.
“Hence, anti-dumping measures imposed on imports of solar glass from glass originating in the People’s Republic of China should be amended,” the journal said.
The higher duties range from 17.5 percent to 75.4 percent, depending on the Chinese exporter. The previous minimum rate was 0.4 percent.
The decision to boost anti-dumping protection against solar glass from China is the outcome of a probe opened in December last year. The verdict leaves unchanged a separate set of EU duties on Chinese solar glass aimed at countering alleged subsidies by China.
Solar glass is used in solar panels, which are themselves the target of European anti-dumping and anti-subsidy levies against China.
The EU solar-glass market is valued at less than 200 million euros (US$222.7 million), the commission said when it opened a dumping inquiry in February 2013 that led to the five-year anti-dumping levies against China.
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