Scrap Tarriff on China Energy Saving Light Bulbs: Retailers to EU
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July 28 – Leading European retailers and electronics manufacturers have urged the European Union (EU) to scrap its punitive trade tariff on energy-saving light bulbs from China. The group, which includes UK supermarket Tesco (LSE: TSCO), Dutch electronics group Philips (PHI1.DE) and Swedish furniture giant Ikea, claim that the tariff of as much as 66% significantly inflates the cost of these energy-saving bulbs.
According to the group of retailers and electronics manufacturers, the antidumping duties on these energy-saving CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) suppresses the demand for such bulbs and is in direct contradiction to the EU’s pledge to support green initiatives and curb card emissions by 20% by 2020. Traditional light bulbs use four-to-five times more electricity than energy saving bulbs. The EU had imposed antidumping duties on the import of Chinese energy-saving light bulbs in 2001 on the pretext that it had evidence to prove that China was breaking international trade rules. The antidumping duties were extended for another year in 2007, after Osram, a part of German engineering group Siemens (SIE.DE), persuaded the EU to levy it. However, many of the CFLs are now manufactured by European firms that have manufacturing facilities in China and, hence, tariff is now obsolete.
Paul Skehan, head of the European Retail Round Table (ERRT), said, “An average shopper finds it very difficult to understand why he or she is being discouraged against buying energy saving light bulbs, at a time when electricity prices are going through the roof, and concern over the environment reaches new heights.” Although low-energy bulbs prove to be more cost-effective than their incandescent alternatives over the whole life of the bulb, up-front costs associated with the former choice are higher. According to the ERRT, which has well-known retailers, such as Tesco, Metro (MEOG.DE) and Kingfisher (LSE: KGF) as its members, if every household purchases even one extra low-energy bulb, it could help save €2 billion in electricity consumption per annum.
In September last year, UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn had announced a two-year timetable for the disappearance of traditional light bulbs from shops to be replaced by energy-efficient CFLs. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, had said, “For every year of delay in getting rid of these bulbs, five million tonnes of C02 are emitted into the atmosphere, unnecessarily.”
Alternatio Cirqui, EconomyWatch.com Energy Correspondent
