Last month, documents published by the commission, and obtained by pv magazine, revealed that Znshine would be withdrawn from the agreement, having violated the terms set out under the MIP framework. These include: making misleading declarations regarding the origin of the product concerned; and changing the pattern of trade to the Union when there is insufficient due cause or economic justification other than the imposition of the measures.
The EC asserts that although Znshine declared its modules were of non-Chinese origin, customs authorities have established that "related parties" of the company did manufacture them in China, before shipping them to the EU via a third country. Znshine had been promoting its "made in Japan" modules for some time. The EC documents do not state whether the ‘third party' in question was Japan.
Furthermore, the EC reports that Znshine included "misleading information" regarding shipment dates and invoices "during a substantial period of time." This violated the reporting obligation component of the MIP.
An unidentified "interested party" requested that the commission put the withdrawal into retroactive effect, due to the "serious" nature of the breaches. It further requested that such retroactive withdrawal be applied to similar cases in the future. The commission has, however, rejected the proposal, saying there is "no legal basis for such retroactive withdrawal."
It adds, "The national customs authorities requested the payment of antidumping and countervailing duties for the transactions in question; hence retroactive withdrawal is not needed."
In June, the European Commission ruled that Canadian Solar, ET Solar and ReneSola were no longer exempt from punitive trade duties, having also breached the terms under the MIP framework, which had negated their tariff exemptions.
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