Poor Showing for EU-China Anti-Dumping Duty Talks -- Beijing Review

First round negotiations between China and the European Union (EU) to prevent the levy of an anti-dumping duty on China's solar panel exports to the EU have failed. All eyes are now on the final round of negotiations to find a solution to the problem.

Less than 48 hours to go before the ballot for EU members to vote for taxing China's solar panel enterprises.

A marked lack of sincerity leading to a breakdown of talks between representatives of the Chinese solar sector and the EU.

Zhang Yujing, China Chamber of Commerce, said: "The EU Commission has firmly and entirely rejected all proposals without any explanation. There was no response from the commission with regard to the questions raised by our delegation. We do not understand and are sorry for the way the commission has handled the negotiation."

After several negotiations between the Chinese Government and EU Commission, the two sides agreed to hold talks on the "price undertaking" problem.

Simply put, "Price Undertaking" refers to exporters raising the export price of a product to avoid the possibility of an anti-dumping duty. At the EU's invitation, the chamber of commerce sent a negotiation team and put forward pragmatic price undertaking plans.

But the process and result made the chamber feel tremendous pressure.

Wang Guiqing, China Chamber of Commerce, said: "The whole process and result made us feel stressed. We have put forward a practical and workable proposal, but it was rejected directly. We had hoped we could both talk over this problem. But to be honest, we could not satisfy China's solar panel enterprises."

There are two key points for the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy case between the EU and China's solar panel enterprises.

The EU will vote for the draft taxation plan imposed on China's solar panel enterprises on Friday.

Two weeks later, the preliminary results will be published. Office of Fair Trading of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has left to attend the final consultation as a last ditch hope to find a solution to the problem.

(CNTV.cn May 23, 2013)