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The European Union threatened to raise tariffs on solar glass from China, saying EU producers may need extra protection from Chinese competitors.

The EU began a review of duties already as high as 36.1 percent that are meant to punish Chinese solar-glass exporters such as Xinyi PV Products (Anhui) Holdings Ltd. for allegedly selling the renewable-energy technology in Europe below cost, a practice known as dumping.

The bloc imposed the anti-dumping levies in May for five years in a bid to aid European solar-glass producers such as GMB Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg GmbH. EU ProSun Glass, a group representing such manufacturers, now says the duty rates arent high enough, according to the bloc.

EU ProSun Glass has provided sufficient evidence that export prices have decreased and there has been insufficient movement in resale prices or subsequent selling prices in the union since the duties were imposed, the European Commission, the 28-nation blocs trade authority in Brussels, said today in the Official Journal. The review, known as an absorption reinvestigation, will last nine months.

The five-year anti-dumping duties range from 0.4 percent to 36.1 percent, depending on the Chinese exporter. When imposing these measures, the EU also hit Chinese solar-glass exporters with a parallel set of five-year levies to counter alleged subsidies by China. The anti-subsidy duties range from 3.2 percent to 17.1 percent.

Solar glass is used in solar panels, which are themselves the target of European anti-dumping and anti-subsidy levies against China.

The EU solar-glass market is valued at less than 200 million euros ($245 million), the commission said when it opened a dumping inquiry in February 2013 that led to the five-year anti-dumping levies against China.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Jones Hayden, Andrew Clapham

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China Solar-Glass Exports May Face Increase in EU Duties