US move to levy higher duty on PV products unfair: China

BEIJING: The Chinese Commerce Ministry today termed US preliminary ruling on imported photovoltaic (PV) products from China an abuse of trade remedy measures.

The US Department of Commerce on Tuesday set preliminary subsidy rates on Chinese PV products, signalling that it may impose punitive duties on those products.

The United States once again started anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on Chinese PV products and tried to levy high duties after it imposed duties on those products in November 2012, an official with the Ministry said here.

China is strongly discontented, he added. "US restrictions on Chinese products were an abuse of trade remedy measures and had a clear hint of trade protectionism. They will certainly worsen the Sino-US dispute in PV trade," state run Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

Earlier, India's Commerce Ministry had recommended levying anti-dumping duty on solar cells imported from the US, Malaysia, China and Chinese Taipei.