EoW July 2013

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Transatlantic cable
July 2013 20
† Mr McGeehan noted that Verizon stands to save many
millions of dollars if it were no longer required to replace
damaged copper wiring in ood-prone areas, or maintain
existing cables elsewhere.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported
in May that another big telecom, AT&T, also intends to “seek
authority to serve millions of current wireline customers,
mostly in rural areas, with a wireless-only product.”
Trade
At a ‘fork in the road’ with respect
to renewable energy, the US will
bargain with China on solar panel prices
According to o cials and trade advisers in Beijing, Brussels
and Washington, the United States and the European Union
have decided to negotiate individual settlements with China
in the world’s largest anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade
cases, involving China’s roughly $30 billion a year in solar panel
shipments to the West.
As noted by Keith Bradsher of the New York Times, a plan that
emerged in broad outline in May would essentially carve up the
global solar panel market into regional markets.
It would sharply raise the price of solar panels exported from
China, the world’s dominant producer, by requiring Chinese
companies to charge more and, as well, limiting the total
number of solar panels they may ship. (“US and Europe Prepare
to Settle Chinese Solar Panel Cases,” 20th May)
“Negotiations with China are still in a very early stage, so it
may take several months before a nal deal, if any, is struck,”
Mr Bradsher reported. If an agreement is reached, Chinese
companies would no longer be charged steep American taxes on
their exports of solar panels.
The US is collecting tari s totalling about 30 per cent while the
European Union was expected to impose similar tari s of about
50 per cent on 5 th June, with backdating to 5th March a possibility.
Chinese producers have partly bypassed the American tari s by
performing one stage in the solar panel manufacturing process
outside mainland China: turning solar wafers into solar cells in
nearby Taiwan.
Mr Bradsher observed that a negotiated deal would close that
loophole in the American tari s. The European trade case does
not have the same loophole.
The goal of both sets of tari s, and of the price and quantity
regulations that could replace them, is to protect American and
European manufacturers from what they and the administration
of US president Barack Obama see as unfair competition.
Some two dozen American and European solar panel
manufacturers have cut back production or gone bankrupt in
the last three years, setbacks widely attributed to the prevalence
of underpriced Chinese product in the market.