EU lifts five-year-old restrictions on solar panels from China
The EU imposed the duties in 2013 after European panel manufacturers complained they were being forced out of business by underpriced Chinese imports
The European Union will end its five-year-old restrictions on solar panel imports from China, officials said on Monday, as Brussels and Beijing increase their own trade cooperation in the face of protectionist steps from the United States.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, suggested the decision would boost the bloc’s renewable energy goals as it rejected an appeal from the European solar industry to reconsider the move.
“The EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on solar panels from China will expire today at midnight (2200 GMT),” the commission said.
The EU imposed the duties in 2013 after European panel manufacturers complained they were being forced out of business by underpriced Chinese imports.
Other European companies that install solar panel systems claimed the duties harmed them by increasing their costs.
Brussels said it was lifting the restrictions in the “best interests of the EU as a whole” after weighing the needs of producers against those of users and importers of solar panels.