FIGHT BREWS OVER CHEAP CHINA SOLAR

Solar-Panel Makers Said to Plan Trade Complaint Targeting Chinese Imports
Mark Drajem and William McQuillen, September 28, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"Solar manufacturers including a unit of SolarWorld AG (SWV) are preparing a U.S. trade complaint against China, as they seek to counter low-cost, subsidized imports…The case, which would be filed at the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, would be one of the largest targeting China, with political implications as both nations race to develop clean- energy technologies.

"The companies say that China’s subsidies to solar companies violate global trade rules and provide those manufacturers with an unfair advantage…[N]o complaint has yet been filed…"

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"In the first seven months of this year, China shipped $1.4 billion of solar panels to the U.S., more than the $1.2 billion of panels it sent in all of 2010, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data. Imports from South Korea, the Philippines and India also jumped.

"The collapse this month of Solyndra LLC, a California maker of solar panels that had $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees, has renewed demands from U.S. lawmakers and union leaders that the Obama administration pursue unfair-trade complaints against China for out-sized subsidies to its clean-energy companies…China provided $30 billion in credit to its biggest solar manufacturers last year, about 20 times the U.S. effort…"