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Most EU members oppose Chinese solar panel duties

Xinhua, May 27, 2013

• At least 14 of the European Union's 27 member states have voted against a European Commission proposal to impose punitive duties on imported Chinese solar panels, sources told Xinhua on Monday.

  EU trade officials were arranging additional meetings or calls this week to reach out to at least three EU members that submitted written "no" positions Friday, said sources familiar with the case.

  Only four members -- France, Spain, Italy and Lithuania -- have been believed to stand on the side of the European Commission while four others have abstained, the sources said.

  The positions of two other countries remain unknown, the sources said.

  "If taking into account the three or four countries who have very probably voted against the proposal, the number of the no-vote countries could rise to 17," the sources said.

  The non-legally binding vote was unlikely to prevent the commission from issuing regulations to slap hefty 47-percent anti-dumping duties on Chinese products, the sources said.

  "However, it does weaken its strategic position for the rest of the investigation and for possible settlement negotiations," a source said. "The commission might attempt in the next couple of days to encourage some EU member states to change their position."

  The sources said a number of senior EU trade officials were surprised by the voting results, which would potentially weaken their position in seeking a negotiated solution to the high-profile trade dispute.

  It was not common for EU officials to lobby member states after they had submitted their final position, the sources said.

  "If the commission is indeed pressuring countries not to vote 'no,' this is potentially undermining the legitimacy of the process," the sources said.

  "The commission cannot initiate a consultation and then try to change the member states' position when it is not satisfied with the outcome of the consultations. That is not how a legal process for consultations works."

  Due to its "disastrous" impact on jobs and business along the EU photovoltaic (PV) industry value chain, the commission's plan to impose punitive duties averaging 47 percent on Chinese solar panels has been widely opposed by EU business leaders and politicians.

  When the vote was held Friday, a symbolic funeral march was conducted in Brussels to commemorate more than 200,000 jobs that were expected to be lost as a result of the proposed punitive duties.

  The event was organized by the Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy (AFASE), a coalition of more than 580 companies in the European PV industry representing more than 60,000 EU jobs and a turnover of more than 20 billion euros (about US$25.9 billion) in the bloc.

  The sources said it had become a consensus among most EU countries that the potential positive impact of duties for EU solar producers would be dwarfed by the negative impact on employment.

  Many business leaders in the EU's PV industry have warned that they would run out of business and the solar market might collapse if China's high-quality and less-expensive solar products were shut out of the European market.

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