EU Commission removes five further solar firms from MIP undertaking

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The European Commission (EC) has withdrawn its price undertaking with a further five solar firms having determined that they each violated the terms of the agreement.

Effective immediately, crystalline solar PV products originating from, or associated with, the Chinese operations of Lerri Solar, DelSolar, CNPV, Motech and Xian Longi entering the European Union (EU) will now be subject to existing anti-dumping (AD) and anti-subsidy duties, the EU has ruled.

For Lerri Solar, CNPV and Xian Longi, countervailing duties of 50% will now be applied to all EU product imports. In March Lerri Solar announced that it wished to be removed from the undertaking; a decision followed up in May by CNPV and Xian Longi.

Both Motech and DelSolar have been removed from the undertaking for wholly different reasons, the EU said. These two firms have manufacturing capacity in Taiwan through affiliated companies. These related parties were granted exemption from the anti-circumvention investigation in February this year, but Brussels has since ruled this derogation poses a "high risk of cross-compensation", prompting the EU Commission to revoke the undertaking for Chinese-built solar panels and cells for both firms.

Hence, any imports into the EU that originate from these firms’ China operations will be subject to existing AD and anti-subsidy duties. Goods made in Taiwan will not be affected. The Commission added that it is unable to separately monitor sales and imports from Taiwan from companies that are already part of the undertaking.

A total of 26 PV manufacturers with production capacity in Taiwan and Malaysia received exemption from anti-circumvention duties in February. Previously, Brussels had determined that some Chinese solar firms had straddled their production to take advantage of this loophole in order to supply the EU and achieve specified minimum import prices (MIP). Therefore, a CVD increase of 11.5% was applied to Chinese goods imported into the EU in this manner.

Prior to this decision, the EU Commission had already ruled against several large Chinese solar firms, removing many big names from the undertaking, including Canadian Solar, ReneSola, ET Solar, ZNShine and Chint Solar. Trina Solar voluntarily withdrew from the MIP undertaking, preferring instead to pay the CVD on its EU imports.

A decision on whether to expire or extend the current undertaking is due in March next year.

Article translated and edited by Ian Clover.

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