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討論區／Europe	字體：小中大

新聞對照：歐盟對大陸太陽能面板課反傾銷稅
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Europe Imposes a Tariff on Chinese Solar Panels, for Less Than Expected
By JAMES KANTER and KEITH BRADSHER

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s trade chief on Tuesday carried out his threat to impose tariffs on solar panels from China. But in a significant concession to Chinese lobbying and after opposition from some European leaders and industry executives, he significantly watered down the penalties.

Karel De Gucht, the bloc’s trade commissioner, said the tariffs would initially be 11.8 percent — about a quarter of the amount he had been threatening to levy.

But he said the tariffs would rise to 47.6 percent in August if the Beijing government did not remedy what he has claimed is a systematic effort by Chinese companies to sell solar panels in Europe below the cost of making them, a practice known as dumping.

“The ball is in China’s court,” Mr. De Gucht said in a Brussels news conference Tuesday, referring to negotiations expected over the next two months. The period of the lower tariff “is a window of opportunity of 60 days,” he said, adding that windows “can also shut.”

As recently as last week, Mr. De Gucht had warned he could impose the much higher duties to defend the credibility of European Union trade rules. But there had been mounting pressure on him to back off.

Prime Minister Li Keqiang of China bypassed Mr. De Gucht during a visit to Germany last week and persuaded Chancellor Angela Merkel to call for further negotiations. China is a big export market for many German products, and Ms. Merkel is not eager to set off a Chinese-European trade war.

On Monday evening, Mr. Li went over Mr. De Gucht’s head, in a phone conversation with the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso.

Mr. Li told Mr. Barroso that China was ready to retaliate if the European Union took action. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said Mr. Li had warned Mr. Barroso that “there would be no winners in a trade war.”

Solar panels represent more than 6 percent of China’s exports to the Continent, making them one of the largest Chinese exports to the European Union. In 2011, Chinese exports of panels and their main components to the European Union were worth about 21 billion euros ($27.4 billion).

“Our action today is an emergency measure to give lifesaving oxygen to a business sector in Europe that is suffering badly from this dumping,” Mr. De Gucht said.

“This is not protectionism,” he insisted, noting that the United States had also applied duties totaling about 30 percent to Chinese solar exports. But the Obama administration recently decided to seek its own negotiated settlement with China to replace the tariffs.

Saying Chinese exporters had captured 80 percent of the European Union’s market for solar panels, he suggested that “massive overcapacity” in China had led the Chinese to flood the European market. China is “producing today one and a half times the amount of solar panels the world needs,” he said.

A majority of the European Union’s governments were officially opposed to putting the preliminary tariffs in place. But under the bloc’s rules, they faced significant obstacles to stopping Mr. De Gucht, who had the backing of the European Commission, the group’s executive branch. Under European Union rules, preliminary tariffs can be turned into five-year tariffs six months later. But that would require a majority of the bloc’s member governments to approve the move.

Individual Western companies, in the solar industry and other sectors, have been wary of taking any public stand against China, which has become the world’s largest market in industries as diverse as steel, cellphones and automobiles. Chinese officials have considerable discretion in issuing factory permits, export licenses and even visas for visiting executives, making most companies leery of publicly voicing criticism of China or being seen as supporting trade actions against it.

In a nod to the heavy lobbying in Europe against the duties, Mr. De Gucht said that “cheap and plentiful seems great, but ultimately this will lead to a race to the bottom” where “everyone loses.”

Asked Tuesday whether he had succumbed to political pressure, particularly from Germany, Mr. De Gucht insisted that he had chosen a “reasonable” middle ground by giving the Chinese 60 days “to come to an amicable solution” before imposing the maximum rate of 47.6 percent.

But Mr. De Gucht suggested that the opposition to tariffs in many national capitals reduced his margin for maneuvering.

“Whatever decision you take in politics, you always take it influenced, and sometimes even pressured,” said Mr. De Gucht. “Decisions do not fall from heaven — they are made in an environment, and a political environment always has pros and cons and influences and so on.”

Despite the reluctance from many parties to back Mr. De Gucht, Western governments and industry trade associations have long contended that Beijing has helped several Chinese industries take over global markets. Beijing’s support, they say, comes through a combination of huge loans from state-owned banks, extensive government research programs, protection of the domestic Chinese market from imports and sometimes even industrial espionage.

China’s rapid expansion in renewable energy, a national priority, has long been cited as an extreme example. China went from a negligible player in the solar panel industry as recently as 2006 to the dominant world producer now, with two-thirds or more of global manufacturing capacity in the sector after $18 billion in loans from state banks.

That expansion contributed to the bankruptcy of or capacity cutbacks at a score of American and European solar companies in the last three years. Chinese solar panel companies have also been hurt lately by overcapacity, with Suntech Power of Wuxi, China, putting its main operating unit into bankruptcy in March.

Li Junfeng, a senior Chinese government energy policy maker who is also president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, expressed delight when told that the European Union had sharply lowered its target for the preliminary tariffs.

“That’s really good news,” said Mr. Li, a senior energy official at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning agency. “At 11 percent, the Chinese companies can do very good business — it doesn’t affect them very much.”

Mr. De Gucht’s decision to impose much lower initial duties than expected could greatly reduce the incentive for the Chinese government to offer concessions in further negotiations.

SolarWorld, a German company that is struggling financially, has brought antidumping and anti-subsidy cases against China in the United States and the European Union in the last two years.

Milan Nitzschke, a SolarWorld vice president who is also president of EU ProSun, an industry group, said European Union countries, including Germany, would be more willing to support higher duties if China failed to negotiate in good faith now.

歐盟對大陸太陽能面板課反傾銷稅

歐盟4日宣布，對從中國進口的太陽能面板徵收暫時性反傾銷關稅，無畏以德國為首的反對聲浪和北京當局對此將激起貿易戰爭的警告。

這項措施6日起在歐盟27國境內生效，初期將對中國太陽能面板開徵平均11.8%的關稅，若中國始終不願參與協商、承諾解決問題，到8月6日稅率將提高到47.6%。這是歐盟有史來規模最大的反傾銷案，涉及中國銷往歐盟價值總計210億歐元（270億美元）的太陽能面板。另歐盟對大陸太陽能的反補貼調查，訂8月初裁。