Europe Takes Action Over Tariff Circumvention

The EU Commission have announced that they will be launching an investigation into solar panel manufacturers who are believed to have circumvented the anti-dumping regulations. There is a widely held belief that some Chinese manufacturers of solar panels have passed their product through 3rd party factories in Malaysia and Taiwan, in order to be able to sell into the European market for below the Minimum Import Price (MIP). This contravenes the regulations regarding the importing of Chinese panels into Europe.

The EU Commission are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that Malaysian and Tawainese companies are implicated in this practise to investigate further. It has therefore been decreed that all product coming out out of either of those two countries will be subject to the 53.4% anti dumping duties plus 11.5% anti subsidy duties, UNLESS  the manufacturer registers with the EU Commission as a true manufacturer.

It has also been made clear that from now on any product marked as Malaysian or Taiwanese which is imported into Europe and is found to actually be Chinese, will have the subsidies applied retroactively. Therefore, any company bringing the panels into Europe may also face heavy penalties in addition to the exporter.

The UK solar market has been awash with low cost panels which proport to be non-Chinese and from another South Asian territory. It is highly likely that several of these brands will now fall under this new enhancement to the anti-dumping measures. We may well hear of manufacturers and distributors (and probably even some installers) being charged with circumvention of anti-dumping regulations in the coming months.

At EH Smith we have always made it clear that the manufacturers we work with, must be entirely transparent regarding their manufacturing. We have one supplier, Suntech Power, which is Chinese but who complies entirely with anti-dumping and MIP regulations. Our other partners, SolarWorld, Vikram Solar and SunSolar are all unaffected by these measures as they are made in Europe or India.

If panels are being advertised for well below the MIP threshold, it is quite possible that they are being supplied through this mechanism of circumvention. Before committing to any purchases on panels which are Malaysian or Taiwanese, think whether saving a few quid is worth the risk of being fined for using illegally priced products.