Netherlands hit with €659m EU fine for "evading anti-dumping duties" on solar panels

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Our team are used to covering positive stories around new solar projects and the environmental and economic benefits they can bring, but today’s story is a little different.

Today we bring news of an enormous fine from the EU towards the Netherlands for allegedly evading duties they should have paid on solar imports. When we say enormous, we mean 659 MILLION EUROS enormous!

The Netherlands are challenging the ruling, saying it is not justified. The charges relate to anti-dumping and countervailing duties that were allegedly avoided between May 2015 and March 2017, in relation to solar imports from  China, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Such duties were introduced in 2013 as part of EU regulation on the growing solar industry. The EU ruling suggests that the Netherlands failed to impose €824 million worth of anti-dumping 
and countervailing duties on imports across the aforementioned 22 month period. They believe 
an incorrect interpretation of the rules imposed by the European Commission.

The Dutch finance minister, Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra, shared his thoughts, saying: “The error of
interpretation would concern imports of these goods shipped from third countries, such as Vietnam,
India and Mexico, originating in Malaysia or Taiwan. The Netherlands is not paying, for the time being,
and is investigating possible solutions. In order to carefully consider whether it is desirable and useful
to await a possible infringement procedure, advice has been requested from the state attorney.”

If the Dutch government does not pay the amount requested, it is possible that the European Commission would begin an infringement procedure with the EU Court of Justice, which if the Netherlands lost, they would have to pay interest payments of €226 million in July 2021 and €275 million in July 1, 2022!

The Netherland’s argument seems to be that if the solar modules were assembled and then shipped on from Mexico, India or Vietnam, the items should no longer be seen as coming from Malaysia or Taiwan. While these duties were eliminated in 2018 after an agreement between China and the EU, it appears that, for the Netherlands at least, the legacy of them looms large.

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