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Solar Panel Trade War

This article is more than 10 years old.

This is just gobsmacking, entirely absurd. US solar panel manufacturers are trying to get tariffs placed upon imports of Chinese solar panels:

Chinese solar companies could soon find themselves bereft of some of their biggest foreign markets as Western manufacturers intensify a solar trade war and seek stiff anti-dumping duties on low-cost Chinese products.

German group SolarWorld said on Thursday it was working on steps to curb alleged price dumping by Chinese rivals in Europe.

This comes less than a day after its U.S. unit led a group of seven U.S. solar companies in urging the U.S. government to slap anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made solar energy products.

A moment's reflection will show that this is an absolutely insane idea.

So, we've got this problem, climate change. In order to solve this problem we've got to move to non- and low-carbon energy generation. We know that these non- and low-carbon technologies are not economic at present. Thus we need to have a large amount of government (read taxpayers') support for these non- and low-carbon technologies.

No, not because we think it's a great idea that these are made by one or another group of people but because we insist that they're vital to the future environment of the planet, to the very survival of our species.

Yet, and yet, people are willing to start a trade war over who is getting more subsidy? We don't actually care about this, do we? We just want the things subsidised for as long as necessary until they become economic. You know, to save the planet?

Even if China is subsidising Chinese manufacturers, more than the US, or Germany, Spain, Italy, are subsidising their own local manufacturers, the correct answer to such subsidy is "Thanks very much, Gaia will be pleased".

Isn't it?