23 European photovoltaic organizations have joined forces to demand stronger import restrictions from the EU.

The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC), along with 22 other European industry bodies, signed an open letter calling on the EU to strengthen protections against the threat posed to European supply chains by unfair trade practices in "non-market economies."

European industry leaders called on the EU to participate in key revisions to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, as these rules form the basis of the EU's own regulations to ensure a "fair" market environment in industries with increasingly expanded global supply chains.

The open letter calls for adequate staffing of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade) to more effectively conduct trade remedy investigations and recommends that the EU "consider introducing new tools" to address the international importation of state-sponsored goods.

The letter also calls for a "more strategic use of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)," a mechanism by which the EU can investigate and address subsidies provided by non-EU governments to products, and demands that the EU use its trade defense instruments (TDIs) "more flexibly, rapidly, and preventively." These trade remedy measures include antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD), designed to offset government subsidies and tax breaks offered by so-called “non-market economy” countries to encourage product production and export. In recent years, the United States has consistently used AD/CVD as its primary means of restricting solar product imports from several regions, including China, India, Indonesia, Laos, and, for the first time this year, Africa.

ESMC Calls for a “Fair and Equal Competitive Environment”

While the open letter signed by ESMC does not name specific countries or identify products suspected of being produced unfairly, ESMC's involvement is clearly related to the import of low-priced Chinese-made solar photovoltaic products into Europe—products whose export prices are often lower than those quoted by European manufacturers.

China's dominant position in the global solar supply chain is nothing new—data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) shows that in 2024, China produced 96.6% of the world's silicon wafers, 93.2% of polysilicon, and 92.3% of solar cells. However, buyers of Chinese products are increasingly seeking to retaliate against government subsidies involved in the manufacturing process of these products.

In addition to the long-standing anti-dumping/countervailing duty investigations in the United States, the EU is currently considering two requests for anti-dumping/countervailing duty measures against solar glass manufacturers and exporters. These two cases involve 37 Chinese companies and 7 non-EU companies, which are identical to the list of companies importing solar glass into Europe at "subsidized prices" mentioned in previous investigation documents.

"A fair and equal competitive environment is a prerequisite for any industry to survive in Europe," said Christoph Podewils, Secretary General of ESMC. "Solar manufacturers already know the cost of acting too late. The European Commission has the relevant tools; what it lacks is the speed and personnel to use them in a timely manner." China's dominant position in the global solar supply chain, coupled with European developers' reliance on Chinese products, has brought the European solar manufacturing industry to the brink of collapse. Although companies like Holosolis advanced plans to build manufacturing plants in Europe earlier this year, Carbon, a French company that was once at the forefront of revitalizing the European solar manufacturing industry, has abandoned its plans to build a 5GW module manufacturing plant in France.