S. Korea, US share need for joint response to China's solar panel excess capacity

Senior diplomats from South Korea and the United States discussed the need for a joint response to potential ramifications from overcapacity in China's solar industry during their talks on energy security in Houston, Texas this week, a Seoul official said Friday.

South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Kim Hee-sang made the remarks as he and US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt led the 10th Energy Security Dialogue on Tuesday.

"As the issue about overproduction of Chinese solar industry products is now quite a significant one, having a negative impact across the world, (we) talked about how South Korea and the US will cooperate," he told Yonhap News Agency over the phone.

He noted that discussions on joint responses revolved around a two-fold approach involving respective countries' import control measures against China's provision of excessive subsidies, and cooperation in developing more technologically competitive products.

"We had discussions on cooperating in responding to China's low-price offensive through respective countries' superior technologies to produce more technologically superior products," Kim said.

ESD was arranged to discuss bilateral collaboration on de-carbonization efforts, clean energy cooperation, and securing diversified critical mineral supply chains, the State Department said prior to the meeting last week. (Yonhap)