EU to Slap Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels

Wall Street Journal
The European Union is poised to slap import duties on solar-panel equipment made in China, likely sparking one of the largest trade battles of recent decades. The duties are intended to protect European solar companies reeling from a flood of imported Chinese solar panels. Dozens of European manufacturers have shut production or gone out of business as solar-panel prices have plummeted; the industry says unfairly priced imports from China are the cause.
The import duties will average about 46%, according to people familiar with the matter, though different Chinese manufacturers will face different individual tariffs. The tariffs will cover panels and their main components, solar cells and silicon wafers.
(...) Solar-panel importers claim that duties of just 15% would cut European demand for solar panels by 85%. "If prices are artificially increased by punitive tariffs, the European solar market would simply come to a standstill with disastrous effects on green jobs," said Wouter Vermeersch, chief executive of Cleantec Trade, a Belgian importer of renewable-energy products.