BRUSSELS: The European Commission faces a difficult choice on Wednesday — stick to its principles and impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panel imports, or bow to German-led pressure and avoid a step many believe risks a full-scale trade war with Beijing.
The stakes are high, commercially and politically.
On the one hand, EU-China trade is worth more than ¤500bn annually, a powerful incentive for everyone to keep calm at a time when both sides, and especially the 27-member EU, are looking to trade to boost growth and jobs.
On the other, the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is caught between Germany, the bloc’s paymaster and biggest economy which has come out openly against duties, and France, which favours them as a way of showing that the bloc will stand up to Beijing in trade disputes.
Analysts say the Commission is in an uncomfortable place.
“The Commission, given the significant and public divisions among member states, is in a very weak position,” said consultant Sergio Marchi, a former Canadian trade minister and ambassador to the World Trade Organisation.
“It will probably seek an elegant way to save face but I’m not sure there is such a route,” Marchi said, adding: “I think the Commission will need to swallow its pride on this one!”
The Commission, however, does have some limited leeway.
The tariffs to be announced Wednesday will be provisional, lasting six months, and so still allow room for negotiations with all parties.
A final decision would come only in December, when EU member states would have to vote to make them permanent or not.
AFP
