The European Commission has officially launched an anti-circumvention investigation against Taiwanese and Malaysian PV cells/modules imports. As from May 29^th, when the announcement was published, all imports from Taiwan and Malaysia have to be registered. Registered products would be imposed on anti-circumvention duties if the circumvention were approved by the investigation. Duties would be subjected starting from the registration date.

EU ProSun accused Chinese PV manufacturers of circumventing the Minimum Import Price (MIP) agreement, which is signed between the EU and China, by exporting products to EU through third-party countries like Taiwan and Malaysia. According to EU ProSun, the circumvention violates the MIP agreement and injures European PV industry. EU’s data shows that at least €500 million of duties have been circumvented.

"Chinese solar manufacturers circumvent the EU's anti-dumping measures by first exporting to third countries like Malaysia and Taiwan before they are imported into the EU, thereby falsifying their genuine origin. Such circumvention is customs fraud and must be stopped," said Milan Nitzschke, President of EU ProSun.

EnergyTrend learns that some Taiwanese PV manufactures have received questionnaires from EU and are now accumulating data to defend themselves against the accusation of helping Chinese PV makers circumvent the MIP agreement. Taiwanese and Malaysian companies whose products are normally manufactured in their countries, are invited to make themselves known to the European Commission by a deadline of early July, and to request an exemption from additional tariffs. Genuine solar manufacturers in Taiwan and Malaysia, which do not participate in Chinese customs evasion should be exempted from tariff measures.

Taiwanese PV products exported to the EU have already gotten Certifications of Origin (CO) from relevant authorities. With the CO, EnergyTrend speculates that the anti-circumvention investigation will not create serious barriers for Taiwanese makers to export their products to the EU. However, it is strongly suggested that Taiwanese PV makers have to cooperate to defend themselves against the accusation so that they might prevent losing another export market, said Corrine Lin, analyst at EnergyTrend.