China slams US anti-dumping decision on solar imports

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday deplored the US trading commission's decision to impose another round of tariffs on Chinese photovoltaic (PV) imports, describing it as unfair and damaging to Chinese companies.

Regardless of the facts and law, the US has launched investigations against Chinese PV products successively and has taken unreasonable action in violation of the WTO rules, the MOFCOM said in a statement posted on its website Thursday.

The US' abusive trade remedy measures are damaging to domestic companies as well as US customers and PV industry, and hinder the development of the global new energy industry, the MOFCOM said.

China will take further measures to defend its rights within the legal framework, according to the statement.

The US International and Trade Commission (USITC) announced an affirmative determination on its website on Wednesday for the US Department of Commerce to issue countervailing duty orders on imports of crystalline silicon PV products from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

The USITC said that the imports from the mainland and Taiwan are sold in the US at less than fair value and are subsidized by the Chinese government, leading to injury to the US industry.

The USITC may release final report including specific evidence for countervailing duty soon and the duty rate may be announced on February 6, a staff from the legal department of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) told the Global Times Thursday on the condition of being anonymous.

The CCCME is gathering together domestic enterprises to discuss how to respond to the situation and may ask the Chinese government to safeguard Chinese companies' rights under the WTO framework, the staff said.

The decision enables the US commerce authorities to impose anti-dumping duties as high as 165.04 percent on imports from the Chinese mainland and 19.5 percent on goods from Taiwan, Reuters reported Thursday.

Moreover, there will be separate countervailing duties of up to 38.72 percent on imports from the Chinese mainland, the report said.

This is the second round of investigation on crystalline silicon PV products from China launched by the US Department of Commerce on January 23, 2014, responding to a petition filed by SolarWorld Industries America Inc based in Oregon.

In 2012, the Chinese mainland's solar power industry was hit by steep duties levied by the US.

The most unfavorable part of the USITC's latest decision on Chinese PV product makers is putting products from Taiwan under anti-­dumping duty, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Thursday.

PV product makers from the Chinese mainland were outsourcing some production to other places, such as Taiwan, after the US launched its first anti-dumping investigation against Chinese imports in 2011, said Lin.

He noted that China's PV product direct exports to the US have shrunk.

US started an anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation into solar cells from China in November 2011, leading to around 30 percent anti-dumping duty and 15 percent countervailing duty on imports from the Chinese mainland, according to media reports.

Although outsourcing solar cell production to Taiwan raises costs, it is still better than the anti-dumping and countervailing duties in the US market, Li Xianshou, CEO of Zhejiang ReneSola Ltd, was quoted as saying by Shanghai-based newspaper Oriental Morning Post on January 1.

The US accounts for 10 percent of the total exports by Chinese PV product makers, according to the report.

The US is closing a loophole left in 2012, but Chinese solar product makers may turn to other countries to avoid import duties, Lin said.

However, the final solution for the Chinese solar makers is to explore domestic market, he noted.

Lin remarked that the Chinese market is promising due to the central government's growing focus on clean energy.