Chinese-made fibreglass used to produce wind turbines and lightweight cars in the European Union faces punitive import duties following a vote by trade officials from member states, diplomatic and industry sources said. A majority of representatives from EU capitals last week approved a five-year duty of 13.8 percent to start by mid-March, to counteract what the EU says is illegal Chinese market dumping, the sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The planned tariff is lower than interim duties of 43.6 percent in place since September, but frustrates EU importers trying to keep down input costs as the EU battles climate change with windfarms and lightweight cars and ships. "The tariff should never have been adopted," said Peter Brun, senior vice president of Denmark's Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine maker. "The wind industry is today a global industry and using trade defence measures is simply not helpful for generating scale and reduction of the cost of energy in our industry."
EU ministers need to approve duties before they launch, but rarely stand in the way once such tariffs have passed a vote by trade officials. The Association of the European Composites Industry, which includes EU fibreglass importers among its members, said it will continue to work against the import tariff. The duties were prompted by European producer complaints that Chinese fibreglass was being dumped on the EU market, threatening jobs at firms such as PPG Industries Inc and Saint-Gobain Vetrotex, a unit of Owens Corning Inc.
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