Viktor Tsvetanov,

Editor (Europe)

 

BRUSSELS – In the heat of financial crisis, Europe should protect its industries on the global scene, but also change its approach to China, the European Union’s commissioner for trade Karel de Gucht said.  The EU is keen on sustaining good relations with China despite recent accusations that Chinese companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, are dumping solar panel prices in Europe, de Gucht pointed.

An investigation is being carried out to see whether Chinese telecoms are dumping or receiving illegal subsidies from Chinese government, which has brought tension between EU and China to an unprecedented level. If dumping schemes prove to be true, this could lead to anti-dumping tariffs on import of Chinese panels in Europe.

“We are not going to shy away from what we have to do,” De Gucht claimed in an interview for Reuters. “But we are not interested in escalating tensions. I believe that the Chinese also realize that this has to be kept within limits,” he added.

Chinese photo-voltaic industry will certainly suffer from such a move if Europe follows the USA in anti-dumping tariffs, but this cannot bring any substantial good for the EU economy as a trade war could break out between the Eurozone and China. Beijing qualifies discussion of possible tariffs as a protectionist move but companies have summoned local government to open a new chapter in its relations with Europe in order to avoid the danger of potential trade war.

“You can imagine that; a mushrooming of problems between China and Europe,” said De Gucht, one of Europe’s most powerful commissioners, and who has permission to lead trade policy on behalf of the EU’s 27 countries. “Both parties realize that this would be a very bad thing for the whole of the world economy.”

In fact, Chinese solar companies’ growth and has done more good than harm for the shrinking European economy, as it turns to give way to creating more than 300 000 workplaces in the related industries across the continent. What is more, every move towards banning Chinese presence on the market would slow down the gradual turn to alternative energy sources.

In the long run, trade between China and the European Union has doubled since 2003, rising to 428 billion euros in 2011, making the EU China’s biggest trading partner