China expects to end solar trade spat with EU next month: official

China expects to resolve a multibillion-US-dollar solar trade spat with the European Union by next month, a senior mainland industry official said yesterday, after a newspaper reported that Beijing had made a new offer to the EU to settle the dispute.

The solar dispute has the potential to affect €21 billion (HK$210 billion) worth of imported Chinese solar panels, cells and wafers from manufacturers such as Trina Solar, Yingli Green Energy and Suntech Power Holdings.

The EU accounts for about half of China's solar exports, which have already been hit hard by the slashing of European subsidies for renewable power because of the impact of the euro-zone debt crisis.

"We reckon there is a big chance for us to defuse the dispute," said Sun Guangbin, secretary general of the solar department of China's Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, who is involved in China's talks with the EU over the dispute. "We remain highly optimistic about the direction we are moving in."

He declined to comment on a report in the Shanghai Securities News yesterday that China had proposed capping the annual volume of its solar panel exports to the EU and setting a minimum price for its products sold there.

Under the proposal, China would export no more than 10 gigawatts of photovoltaic modules to the EU a year at a minimum price of 50 euro cents per watt, the paper quoted National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) researcher Wang Sicheng as saying.