China Commerce Chamber Urges Solar Detente Amid Trade Dispute

The Chinese chamber of commerce that monitors trade in solar-energy products called for collaboration between the Asian nation and the European Union as trade conflicts escalated.

“It’s time for the solar industry to push new cooperation among countries using their comparative advantages,” Wang Guiqing, vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said today at a briefing in Beijing. “China and Europe will definitely work together; the earlier talks start the better.”

Solarworld AG (SWV), Germany’s largest solar-panel maker, last month led a group of manufacturers in requesting the European Commission investigate whether Chinese rivals dumped products at a loss on regional markets. China’s Ministry of Commerce is also looking into a request to start anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations on polysilicon bought from the EU, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Aug. 17, citing people it didn’t identify.

Wang didn’t specify what kind of cooperation is involved.

To contact the reporter on this story: Feifei Shen in Beijing at fshen11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net