EU-China solar accord effective on August 6

BRUSSELS - Agence France-Presse

Workers install a solar panel in Jiuquan, in chian’s Gansu province. REUTERS photo

The European Commission said on Aug. 2 that a much-lauded “amicable solution” over imports of Chinese solar panels, a key step in easing fears of a trade war, will enter legal force on August 6.

A Commission spokesman told a regular news conference in Brussels that backing around the now 28-state bloc home to more than 500 million people - the world’s most lucrative integrated market - was “almost unanimous.” “A huge majority voted in favour... (and) no member states voted against,” he said.

The European Union executive “adopted a decision to accept the undertaking offered by Chinese exporting producers of solar panels, as well as a regulation exempting these participating companies from the payment of provisional anti-dumping duties,” the Commission said in a statement. The legal formalities are to be completed overnight in Europe.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht announced the accord on July 28, expressing the hope the compromise could serve as a template in a series of tit-for-tat disputes on other products ranging from steel pipes and telecoms equipment to wine and chemicals.