EU-China solar deal triggers court threat

The EU voted Friday to implement a much-lauded deal to avoid a trade war over cheap imports of Chinese solar panels, but a European industry group threatened a legal challenge. Concessions are being implemented to prevent trade tensions spilling over into other disputed areas and will come into force on August 6, the European Commission said. Europe's solar panel industry body, EU ProSun, said it would take the case to an EU court in Luxembourg, although it was not immediately clear what the impact of such a move would be on the agreement. A Commission spokesman said the agreement had "almost unanimous" backing from governments around the 28-state bloc. "A huge majority voted in favour... (and) no member states voted against," the spokesman told a regular news briefing. The Commission, the powerful EU executive that fights trade disputes on behalf of the world's most lucrative integrated market, said it had "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". EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said when announcing the deal that Brussels hoped the solar-panel compromise could serve as a template for resolving other tit-for-tat disputes on products ranging from steel pipes and telecoms equipment to wine and chemicals. De Gucht said that the agreement, which runs to the end of 2015, was the best Europe could get. But solar panel manufacturers said that they had been sold out, while importers warning they would suffer higher prices as a result of the deal. The head of EU ProSun, Milan Nitzschke, said the deal was illegal as bloc member states had waived through approval without "content, price ceilings and market volumes" being known. He said the terms of the compromise would allow Chinese firms to hoover up more than 70 percent of the solar market "at a price level which continues to encourage dumping."