The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said 21 Taiwanese solar firms are expected to be exempted from anti-circumvention duties imposed by the EU, as they did not mislabel their products.
The EU launched an investigation in May over alleged avoidance of anti-dumping duties by Chinese companies shipping solar products to the European market via Taiwan and Malaysia.
Twenty-eight Taiwanese solar makers were investigated by an EU delegation from October through last month, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said in a statement.
The delegation deemed that 21 of the 28 firms, including Inventec Energy Corp (英懋達) and Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源), manufacture solar products in Taiwan and did not mislabel their goods, the bureau said.
However, the EU is to impose anti-circumvention duties of 64.9 percent on seven Taiwanese solar makers, as it found evidence that the seven companies allegedly took advantage of Taiwan’s free-trade zones to help Chinese exporters evade tariff duties by shipping solar goods to eurozone nations.
Some of the seven solar makers have suspended operations, while others did not have production capacity at all, the bureau said, without disclosing the names of the firms.
In addition, the seven companies failed to cooperate with the EU’s investigation by filing out questionnaires conducted by the delegation, the bureau said.
The bureau said the 28 companies have until Jan. 6 to comment on the EU ruling, with a final decision expected to be announced by the EU at the end of February.
In related news, the ministry said the US Department of Commerce on Tuesday ruled that certain corrosion-resistant steel products from Taiwan would not be subjected to anti-dumping duties imposed by the US.
The ministry said the US government in June launched a series of anti-dumping investigations over products from Taiwan, China, India, Italy and South Korea.
Other than Taiwan, the rest of the nations face anti-dumping duties ranging from 2.99 percent to 255.8 percent for shipments to the US, the ministry said.
The US government is to make a final ruling on the investigation on March 7, the ministry said.
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