First-round negotiations designed to ease the current solar panel trade spat between China and the European Union (EU) have failed, Chinese trade body sources involved in the talks said on May 22.

China and the EU had agreed that talks on such "price undertaking" would be held between representatives of the Chinese solar sector and the EU, said Wang Guiqing, deputy head of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.

At the EU's invitation, the chamber sent a negotiation team and put forward pragmatic price undertaking plans, but the EU side turned them down flat, refusing to answer questions from the Chinese side, he said.

The EU backed a proposal in early May to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China in order to prevent what it called the "dumping" of Chinese panel products in the European market.