China sues EU at WTO

China complains against the European Union’s renewable energy subsidies.

China has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the EU over renewable energy subsidies. The WTO confirmed the complaint against the EU, Italy, and Greece on a number of measures affecting renewable energy.

China claims that certain measures affecting renewable energy, specifically relating to the feed-in tariff programs of EU member states, are inconsistent with the WTO rules.

The complaint comes after China last week announced a trade investigation into EU exports of solar-grade polysilicon. Analysts saw this as an escalation of a bitter trade row with the EU, which began a similar probe into Chinese products last September.

China said it would examine alleged subsidies received by EU producers and exporters of polysilicon and would investigate whether EU firms were selling it at artificially low prices in China.

Polysilicon or polycrystalline silicon consists of small silicon crystals and is used for thin film devices and solar cells.