The recent decision of the U.S Department of Commerce to raise import duties on solar products from China and Taiwan has earned severe criticism from China.
A statement from China’s Commerce Ministry said U.S’ actions risked damaging the solar industry in both countries.
The U.S decided to raise anti-dumping duty as high as 165.05 percent on solar panels and cells from China after finding that the products were being sold too cheaply in the U.S market.
This comes just a week after the WTO criticized the U.S for imposing anti-dumping duty on several Chinese products including solar cells.
Hearing the petition from Chinese importers, the WTO had stated that “U.S was wrong to slap punitive duties on a host of Chinese goods on the grounds that they were sold at too a low a price and benefitted from unfair subsidies.”
The new move from the U.S to raise the anti-dumping duty is likely to toughen the ongoing trade war between the U.S and the China. The U.S had recently also imposed anti-subsidy duties on Chinese products.
Commenting on the latest anti-Chinese movement from the U.S, Chinese officials said trade friction is unavoidable but governments have the responsibility to prevent it from harming the relation between the two countries.
Following this announcement, Chinese solar stocks nosedived in the local markets. U.S is one of the main markets for solar products from China and Taiwan. Some of the losers in Chinese stock markets in the early days of trading were Motech Industries and E-Ton Solar while those in the Taiwan Stock Exchange that suffered the loss were Gintech Energy and Neo Solar Power.
Meanwhile Yingli Green Energy, a producer from China, said it is still committed to the U.S market, though it is subject to hefty antidumping tariffs. Yingli Green was one among the suppliers who have been accused of selling solar equipment at unreasonably low price in the U.S market.
editor@greentechlead.com