BEIJING, July 19 (UPI) -- The sale of solar products from the United States and South Korea at below cost caused damage to the national economy, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.
The Chinese government said Chinese importers of U.S. and South Korean solar products would have to pay a higher duty starting Wednesday.
Wang Bohua, secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance, said the ministry was responding to various disputes over solar products with foreign governments.
"After preliminary investigations, we found exporters in the United States and the Republic of Korea dumped their products on the Chinese market and caused material harm to China's domestic solar industry," the ministry was quoted as saying Thursday by China's official Xinhua News Agency.
Chinese solar products are the subject of Western anti-dumping investigations. The Chinese government said it was trying to negotiate with the European Union over disputes related to the solar market.
Chinese-manufactured solar products account for more than half of the global market and are a main source of European imports of renewable energy goods.
