14 DAY TRIAL // On the 25th of July, EU Pro Sun (i.e. an association of European countries specializing in manufacturing and marketing solar panels), took an official stand against the Chinese solar panels industry and filed a complaint with the European Commission.
To cut a long story short, said association accused China of dumping both solar panels and key components needed for manufacturing them on the European market.
In slightly simpler words, they argued that Chinese producers oversaturated the European market with cheap merchandise, and can therefore be held responsible for engaging in unfair trading operations.
Justifying its decision to launch this anti-dumping investigation, the European Commission explained how, “The Commission is legally obliged to open an anti-dumping investigation if it receives a valid complaint from a Union industry which provides evidence that exporting producers from one or more countries are dumping a particular products into the EU and causing injury to the Union industry.”
Truth be told, China is presently responsible for producing 65% of the solar panels that make it onto the global green energy market, and since most European countries are presently trying to boost their use of renewables, it comes as no surprise that 80% of the solar panels sold on this continent actually come from China.
Still, it seems that in 2011 alone, the Chinese solar panels sold on the European market were worth a whopping total of €21 billion ($26.37 billion / ₤16.60 billion).
Once the investigation comes to an end, the European Commission can either leave things as they are, or take anti-dumping measures which will be in place for a duration of five years.
However, “Before deciding on the imposition of any measures, the EU (…) will conduct the so-called 'Union interest test,'” meaning that, “The Commission will closely examine whether the potential imposition of measures would be overall more costly to the Union economy than the benefit of the measures would be to the complainants.”