China traded arguments with SolarWorld Industries America on Friday over the Hillsboro-based manufacturer's charges that illegal Chinese subsidies are gutting the U.S. solar sector.
Chinese government officials and executives said a trade complaint filed Wednesday by German-owned SolarWorld and six other manufacturers could hurt global economic recovery and impede efforts to address climate change. The coalition led by SolarWorld, which employs 1,000 in Hillsboro, accused China of cornering the market by dumping products in the United States for less than it costs to manufacture and ship them.
But a statement issued by China's Commerce Ministry said the United States had adopted its own policies to protect the U.S. solar industry. The agency called on U.S. officials to reject the coalition's call for tariffs on Chinese products.
"If the U.S. government files a case, adopts duties and sends an inappropriate protectionist signal, it would cast a shadow over world economic recovery," the statement said. "The U.S. has no reason to criticize other countries' efforts to improve the world's environment."
The dispute places Oregon in the middle of growing conflict between the United States and China over international trade, currency values and patent protection. A trade war would hurt Oregon exporters, who sell more products to China than any other country.
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The Oregonian’s continuing coverage of SolarWorld and its trade complaint against China.
China's statement Friday could be interpreted as a threat to retaliate if the United States imposes tariffs because it said American companies would lose sales to China of factory equipment and raw materials. But it was unclear whether Chinese officials meant they would put duties on U.S. products or merely that companies in China would need fewer American goods if their exports to the United States declined.
SolarWorld's group, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, responded Friday to China's statement, calling it misleading, unfounded and absurd. The coalition, whose other six members remain anonymous, went beyond the solar issue to label China the worst violator of global trade laws. It accused China of damaging the environment, manipulating its currency and failing to protect intellectual property rights.
The U.S. coalition singled out one manufacturer, Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co., whose operations were suspended recently after protesters complained of toxic emissions, fish kills and cancer deaths. SolarWorld asserts that Jinko Solar is among companies receiving low-interest loans that violate fair-trade provisions.
Jinko managers had no comment Friday. But managers of China's Suntech Power Holdings Co., accused by the coalition of dumping, issued a statement saying they were "well-prepared to substantiate our strict adherence to fair international trade practices."
Managers of another Chinese company, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd., also issued a statement. "We intend to mount a vigorous defense," they said.
The public version of the coalition's voluminous filing became available Friday. It's heavily redacted to protect trade secrets and the identities of SolarWorld's co-petitioners.
The documents say companies supporting the petitions account for 70 percent of U.S. crystalline-silicon solar-cell production. The trade complaint covers only those products -- not so-called thin-film solar panels made by SoloPower, a company launching a Portland plant, and previously by Solyndra, a California company that went under after receiving a $535 million U.S. government loan guarantee.
Not all segments of the U.S. solar industry support the coalition's attack on China. Many solar-panel installers like the cheap Chinese modules.
Carlos Domenech, president of SunEdison -- a unit of MEMC Materials Inc., which has a solar-ingot factory in Portland -- told Bloomberg news service that low-cost Chinese panels help U.S. consumers and create green jobs in the United States.
Joanna Lewis, a Georgetown University authority on China's renewable-energy industry, said Friday that Chinese solar manufacturing helps the global transition to a low-carbon energy economy.
"If you care about things like climate change," Lewis said, "you want solar energy to be available to as many countries as possible for as low a price as possible."
Source:http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/china_blasts_solarworlds_reque.html
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