German VDMA welcomes agreement between EU, China in solar battle

(SeeNews) – Jul 30, 2013 – The solar division of German engineering industry association VDMA announced on Monday it welcomes the agreement reached between EU and China in their solar module dispute.

If the parties had failed to reach an agreement, the European Commission (EC) would have imposed an increase in the punitive tariff for Chinese solar modules of an average of 47%, up from currently almost 12%.

However, the EU and China have now agreed on a minimum price of EUR 0.57 per watt for Chinese solar modules as well as on an upper limit of imports of 7 GW, VDMA noted. If this mark is exceeded, the increase punitive tariff of 47.6% will come into force.

The agreement between the parties is now set to be valid until the end of 2015.

Amid the EU-China expanding solar and other business disputes that were threatening to turn into a trade war, the EU last month announced its decision to levy provisional anti-dumping charges of between 37.2% and 67.9% on Chinese imports of solar panels, cells and wafers. For two months starting on June 6, defined as a transitional period, Chinese solar imports were subject to a tariff of 11.8%. After August 6 the full duties, standing at 47.6% on average, were to enter into force if the two sides had not reached any compromise. To that plan, China immediately struck back with a threat to impose duties on wine imports from the EU.

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