By Andrew Hayley
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said it was concerned by what it called discriminatory measures by the European Union against its firms after the bloc said it would investigate subsidies received by Chinese suppliers of wind turbines destined for its countries.
“The outside world is worried about the rising tendency of protectionism in the EU,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing on Wednesday.
“China is highly concerned about the discriminatory measures taken by the European Union against Chinese companies and even industries,” Mao said, adding that the bloc should abide by World Trade Organization rules and market principles.
The investigation, announced on Tuesday, represents the latest move in a push by Europe and the United States to protect their firms from what they view as unfair competition from state-subsidised clean technology imports from China.
In a visit to China this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Washington would not accept its industry being “decimated” by China’s overcapacity in key products such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.
The European Commission will look into conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria, the EU’s anti-trust commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said.
While local players like Siemens Energy and Vestas still supply most of wind turbines on Europe’s wind farms, they face intense competition from lower cost Chinese products, threatening their position in a global race to develop more efficient, and cheaper, turbines.
China has by far the world’s largest wind turbine production capacity, accounting for 60% of the 163 gigawatts (GW) globally in 2023, according to Brussels-based industry association Global Wind Energy Council.
Wind energy projects received subsidies from the central government between 2009 and 2021, and still receive local government support and state bank financing.
Prices for Chinese turbines are around 20% below rival U.S. and European products, says research service BloombergNEF.
The EU imported some $1.42 billion in turbines and components from China last year, customs data showed.
While subsidies could stimulate innovation, they also have the potential to distort markets, Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, told Reuters.
“Free and open markets rely on rules-based trade practices. The European Chamber expects to see a fact based probe with a view to ensure such principles for all market participants,” Eskelund said.
(This story has been refiled to remove the extraneous word ‘were’ in paragraph 9)
(Reporting by Andrew Hayley, Liz Lee and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Miral Fahmy and Kim Coghill)
