China is bearing more heat in its latest trade dispute with the US as Washington makes a move to impose tariffs on the Asian country's growing solar power industry. Beijing has lodged a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) indicating the illegality of Washington's decision to subsidize its own renewable energy firms as well as adding more duties on imported products which severely affected China's interests and distorted the global market.
Earlier this year, US President Donald J. Trump approved the imposition of high levy rates on solar panel imports as an initiative to protect the US-based producers. China and South Korea were among those who took the brunt of this new policy, a report from India Times said.
In a statement released to the press on Tuesday, China's commerce ministry questioned the legality of the said US policies which forcefully ruled out the Chinese players from the solar power market.
The ministry added that while the White House has all the intention to kick off any international competition as part of its protectionist measures, it meanwhile provided subsidies and support to domestically-produced photovoltaic products.
According to Beijing, this is a clear violation of the "legitimate rights and interests of China's renewable energy companies." Furthermore, the Asian powerhouse believes that the US has blatantly violated the trade rules set by the WTO. It would be intuitive than for China to lodge its sentiments to the international governing bodies and make use of its resolution mechanism to settle the dispute, as indicated by Reuters.
"...China's use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is a necessary measure to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and maintain multilateral trade rules," the agency went on to emphasize.
Opposite to what the White House has expected, local solar industries were among those who decried Trump's decision to inflict the said tariffs.
Despite the subsidy offered by the government, this new policy could definitely influence the cost of materials as well as affect the price of imports, both of which have been seen responsible for the gradual loss of jobs in North America.
Data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), rates of solar module production in the US showed a drop from 1.5 gigawatts in 2011 to merely 1 GW in 2017 which is attributed to bankruptcies filed by numerous US-based solar manufacturers.
Meanwhile, China continued to pump out solar products with a surging rate of 21 percent year-on-year. This is amidst the escalating trade war it has waged against the Western powerhouse.
