Chong Quan, Deputy International Trade Representative of the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, and head of Chinese government Delegation, held consultations, on September 14 in Brussels with Demarty, European Commission's Director General for Trade, on anti-dumping investigation against imports of China’s photovoltaic (PV) cells. Chong Quan said he hope EU be prudent and settle China-EU trade issues through consultations, and safeguard China-EU economic and trade relations.

Chong Quan said the European Commission ignore the objections of the Chinese government and business, and are bent on anti-dumping investigation against imports of PV cells from China. The case has implications on more than 20 billion dollars of exports by China and thousands of enterprises and more than 400,000 jobs in China. Therefore, the Chinese government, the industry and the public show great concern. China and EU PV industries have mutual need and enjoy mutual development since the very beginning, fostered and pattern of mutual dependency of an interactive industrial division and established a relationship of complementary advantage and mutual benefits in the PV industry chain. The EU should not only focus on China export of PV cells to EU, but should also see the indisputable facts that over 200,000 jobs were brought to its PV power generation and installation industry, its raw materials and technical equipment valued at tens of billions of dollars were exported to China and its energy transformation was greatly accelerated by the solar energy industry.

According to Chong Quan, the difficulties encountered in PV industry are ones in all industries. The difficulties of the EU enterprises cannot be attributed to the dumping by Chinese enterprises, which is essentially different from competition. China hopes that the EU makes a comprehensive, objective and fair judgment on this case and solves the challenges encountered through cooperation rather than unilateral measures of trade restrictions. China and the EU have many cooperation and mutual benefits in various fields such as trade, investment and technical cooperation. Any restrictive measures may not only affect one product or the benefit of one industry, but also affect the relevant industries and the overall benefits of the EU.

Chong Quan stressed, what the EU did has led to strong dissatisfaction from the Chinese industry. It is obvious that this case has become a material issue testing China-EU economic and trade relationship. Serious negative impact on the bilateral economic and trade relationship will be certainly caused by improper handling of the case. The best way to solve the problem is consultation. It is hoped that the EU attaches importance to China’s concerns, seeks ways to solve the trade frictions through consultations and negotiations between governments and industries, and properly handles this case to maintain the overall situation of China-EU economic and trade relationship.

Demarty stated that this case is filed by the European Commission in accordance with the application from enterprises and legal procedures, but he had no prediction on the result. The EU understands the huge value and the particularity of the case. It is in the interests of both sides to avoid trade conflicts. In the process of investigation, the EU is willing to abide by the WTO rules and the EU laws, negotiate and consult with China to find a way to settle the case. The industries in China and the EU may also conduct consultations of their own will.