After three Chinese manufacturers were removed from the minimum price agreement (MIP) in June, the EU recently announced that they have found a number of breaches of its MIP with two other Chinese suppliers – Astronergy and Suntellite. Therefore, the two firms also face being closed out of the MIP between China and the EU.
However, Lilianne Ploumen, Holland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, and five leading PV enterprises in the Netherlands have come to a conclusion on the advantages of Chinese PV products and impacts of the EU-China trade war. They indicated that they will prevent the EU from imposing permanent tariffs on Chinese PV products.
Advantages of Chinese PV Products
- Chinese PV imports have created many job opportunities for European importers, installation companies, and equipment suppliers.
- The popularization of low-cost Chinese PV cells has made significant contribution to the EU economy.
Impacts of the EU-China trade war
- Managing director of Atama, the largest PV installation company in the Netherland, indicated that the company sales have dropped two-thirds ever since temporary anti-dumping duties were imposed on Chinese PV products.
- Managing director of Tempress believes that punitive taxes will stifle all forms of innovations. Due to market uncertainties, many orders have been postponed by their clients.
- As members of AFASE, Dutch PV companies will lobby league members as well as other EU companies in order to inform them of the serious losses after imposing permanent tariffs on Chinese PV products.