The Taiwanese government is preparing to plead its case to the European Commission as it looks to avoid the imposition of trade duties on its solar products.
An official told a sitting of the territory’s legislature that while one Taiwanese firm was found to have been labelling solar products from mainland China with ‘Made in Taiwan’, the majority of firms were abiding by international trade rules. It will soon be putting this case to the European Commission.
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The European Commission opened an investigation into solar products imported from Malaysia and Taiwan after SolarWorld, the German company behind the European complaint over alleged dumping by Chinese firms, provided sufficient evidence of changing trade patterns and that existing measures – namely the price undertaking – were being “undermined”.
According to a report by Focus Taiwan, legislator Yang Chiung-ying said Taiwan had never been involved in any illegal trade activity while acknowledging one isolated incident.
The Taiwanese authorities now plan to present Brussels with evidence that it claims will demonstrate this.
SolarWorld had alleged that Chinese manufacturers were circumventing trade duties and the restrictive price undertaking agreement in place with Europe, via Malaysia and Taiwan. Possible methods for circumvention include transhipping completed products through a third territory or completing negligible parts of the manufacturing process in a third country.
