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![Chinese companies produce 80 per cent of the world's solar panels [Getty Images]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/88673140-china-300x200.jpg)
Chinese companies produce 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels [Getty Images]
A price undertaking deal reached between a Chinese chamber of commerce and the European Commission on Chinese solar panel exports was announced on Saturday.
Earlier in June, the EU imposed an interim anti-dumping duty of 11.8 per cent on imports of all Chinese solar panel products, including panels, cells and wafers.
If both sides had failed to come to an agreement, the duty would have been raised to an average of 47.6 per cent two months after it went into effect.
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced Saturday that it welcomed the decision.
Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said that leaders of both China and the EU have expressed willingness to settle the solar panel dispute through negotiations,
Shen added that ‘the proper settlement of the solar panel dispute will also prove beneficial to the development of clean energies globally’.
The EU expressed satisfaction with the offer of a price undertaking submitted by China’s solar panel exporters.
“We found an amicable solution in the EU-China solar panels case that will lead to a new market equilibrium at sustainable prices,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.
Chinese companies produce 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels.
Price undertaking is permitted by the WTO and EU laws.
It is an alternative form of trade measures that replaces a duty by a price undertaking based on a minimum import price, according to a press release from the European Commission on Saturday.
Reuters quoted an EU diplomatic source as saying that the agreed price was 0.56 euro cents per watt, near the spot price for Chinese solar panels in July in Europe. China will also be allowed to meet about half Europe’s solar panel demand, if taken at last year’s levels, asserted the EU official.
Source: Agencies
