US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has expressed its support for US government’s role as mediator in negotiations between the European Union and China to resolve anti-dumping case against Chinese manufacturers.

The US is rumoured to have brought to the negotiating table an offer to suspend its own duties on Chinese exports whilst setting a quota on Chinese exports and a minimum price for solar products, according to Bloomberg.

Carol Guthrie, US trade representative told PV-Tech: “Our goal is to support a healthy global solar industry in conditions that foster the adoption of renewable energy and continued innovation and a level playing field for all. Toward those ends, we will continue to work with industry and our trading partners to explore ways to resolve concerns.”   

Guthrie confirmed: “Active negotiations have not yet begun.”

Photo Credit: PV TechMichael Froman, a White House adviser and President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the US trade office, informed senators that the US is exploring talks with China and the EU, according to Bloomberg.

The US is looking to avoid giving Chinese producers a way to bypass paying taxes to the US by sending partially assembled solar equipment to the US and exporting to the EU thereby avoiding paying not only European but also US duties. 

However a spokesman for module manufacturer Trina Solar told PV-Tech that products from the US would “not offer the same benefit of cost rationalisations and economies of scale compared to Chinese producers. Also, these producers are increasingly attracted by growing demand in their neighbouring markets that is significantly stronger than in the EU.”

Importers of Chinese cells into the US have already been accused by the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, complainants in the US Department of Commerce’s case against Chinese manufacturers, of evading duties due to a loophole present in the US trade law which does not exist in EU law. READ MORE