Study On The Legal Issues Of AD&CVD Cases In Photovoltaic Industry(Case Analysis)

In 2011, the German solar company Solar World in conjunction with other six photovoltaic companies submitted a petition to the US Department of Commerce(DOC) and the US International Trade Commission(USITC) to apply for processing AD&CVD investigation on Chinese products of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, at Sept of the same year DOC and USITC approved the case and filing a formal investigation, and ultimately affirmed that the Chinese PV companies had a wide range of dumping. Besides, the subsidies provided by the Chinese government on the PV industry has strongly harmed US PV industry. During the investigation, the Chinese and US representatives have been fiercely debating on whether the "dual" actions are both reasonable and legitimate. On Sept 2012, the European Commission announced to launch AD investigation on solar panels, crystalline silicon cells and other solar modules exported from China to European Union. On November, they issued a notice again, which was to investigate CVD on those products. Since then, another "dual" action pointed on Chinese PV industry has begun.The dissertation is based on the two typical photovoltaic AD & CVD cases(US and EU) and in order to analyze the launching constitutive requirements of AD & CVD petition, general procedures, as well as the legal application. The focuses in the case are on the market economy status and surrogate country, double remedy issues and actionable subsidies. It also reveals the discrimination, irrationality and the special problems that exists in AD & CVD investigation of renewable energy industry.This dissertation is divided into four chapters, the first chapter is the overview of the photovoltaic industry and the AD & CVD investigation. Chapters 2 and 3 are the two typical cases which are from the United States and European Union, including the basic introduction, arguments on both sides, and the most important part is the controversial points had been put forward during the petition. Such as from the AD investigation of the United States: the market economy status and surrogate country issue, taxation standard, double remedy and AFA rule. And also from the case of EU: modifying the basic law of AD in order to perfecting its legal gist for trade remedy. As it’s a particular industry, the problem is whether it’s legal to take all the subsidies as actionable subsidies. The fourth chapter analyzes China’s coping strategies, including actively seeking for the market economic status, modifying and improving the legal policies of the domestic subsidies for renewable energy industry and so on.When I was writing the dissertation, the United States has launched the second investigation to Chinese PV industry, and overthrew the first case. It can be concluded that the United States and the EU PV trade friction was only a start. So it is quiet important to combine the two typical cases and analyze, then the further exploration of this topic can be a legal practicing reference for the trade frictions of renewable energy industry.