China says polysilicon from EU damaged its industry, but it will not imposes duties

The Chinese government will not introduce provisional antidumping and anti-subsidy duties on polysilicon imports from the EU, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom). This is despite the fact that the Chinese antidumping and anti-subsidy investigations into polysilicon imports from the EU did find that European producers have dumped their products on the Chinese market and have received subsidies from European governments.
Mofcom said that the domestic polysilicon industry was »substantially damaged« by European producers’ actions and that there was a casual relationship between the dumping and the subsidies and substantive damages. Mofcom said it decided not to impose provisional duties because it was taking into account »the special market conditions of this case,« without providing further details.
China and the EU agreed to settle the trade dispute over EU polysilicon imports into China in July, when their respective governments came to a broad agreement on solar trade. Mofcom opened an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation into solar-grade polysilicon imports from the EU in November 2012. Mofcom also opened similar investigations into US and South Korean polysilicon imports in July 2012. Last week, Mofcom set final antidumping duties of up to 57% and anti-subsidy duties of 2.1% on polysilicon imports from the US. The antidumping duties are in line with the preliminary duties set by China in July 2013, but the anti-subsidy duties are lower than the 6.5% preliminary duties set in September. Mofcom has applied final antidumping duties of 2.4% to 12.3% on South Korean polysilicon. The duties will last for 5 years.
© PHOTON