UK could become ‘dumping ground’ for Chinese solar panels due to Trump tariffs ...Middle East

The UK risks becoming a “dumping ground” for forced labour-made Chinese solar panels as shipments are rerouted away from the United States due to Donald Trump tariffs on Beijing, The i Paper has been told.

Solar panels in the UK are almost entirely made in China but US tariffs, counter-levies, and the EU’s renewed efforts to support Europe’s ailing solar panel manufacturers may result in a further influx of Chinese solar panels that would flood the British market.

Around 45 per cent of solar panels imported into the UK are of Chinese origin, according to HMRC. Beijing also accounts for 80 per cent of the current global supply, while another 17 per cent comes from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, where Chinese solar firms have set up export hubs.

It comes as a decision is to be made on a new Chinese embassy, which would dwarf the US equivalent in Nine Elms despite espionage concerns and its proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables.

Alicia Keans MP, the former foreign affairs select committee chair, told The i Paper she was “gravely concerned about how reliant we are on Chinese Communist Party-made energy infrastructure”.

“It puts our energy security at risk, which puts our national security at risk,” she added. “The Chinese Government has bought up the processing of all critical minerals required to make solar panels. I’m not saying we can’t have solar panels coming from China, but overreliance is risky.”

Evan Folwer, from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told The i Paper that China had “invested the bank” in greener technologies like solar panels and electric vehicles and that tariffs brought by the Trump administration may now force China to “offload” elsewhere.

“The UK seems to be a fine place for them to offload what they have,” he said.

The warning comes as the Government pushes ahead with the mass expansion of solar farms, with projects accelerated for approval since Labour came into power last year. The Government hopes this will enable 40GW of solar energy capacity in the UK by 2030, rising to 70GW by 2035.

The push to net-zero targets means millions of solar panels will need to be brought into the country as only parts are still made in the UK.

The main concern around Chinese-made solar panels is from forced labour in Xinjiang polysilicon – something Beijing has denied – which makes up 45 per cent of the world’s supply of the material. Polysilicon is a key component in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, present in 95 per cent of panels.

A 2021 study from Sheffield Hallam University found that the key material is obtained under a massive system of coercion. This has been repeatedly denied by the Chinese authorities. The United Nations, along with the UK, US and other Western nations, have accused the Chinese state of subjecting unconscionable crimes against humanity to the Uyghur people.

“Government procurement standards around human rights and forced labour leaves an exception when it comes to energy,” Fowler said. “That for us is problematic,” adding that the UK should have “zero tolerance” for forced labour in the supply chains when it comes to energy infrastructure.

The UK introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 criminalising slavery, human trafficking, and forced labour in the supply chain, but critics have said the law needs to urgently be strengthened further and relies on corporations’ goodwill.

“The current legislation dates before we knew what was really happening in Xinjiang. The legislation a decade ago seemed sufficient but things have moved on,” Fowler said. “If you look at sort of legislation that has been passed in Europe, the UK is no longer leading in that regard.”

The EU in 2024 passed legislation forcing large companies to be held liable for damage caused by violations of partaking in modern slavery, leaving them liable for compensation. UK companies with turnover within the EU over €1,500 million will have to apply the directive from 2027. The US also introduced the specific Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021.

“In Xinjiang, we are talking about something that is a state program, and it is on a scale we’re not seeing anywhere else in the world,” Fowler said. “We’re also talking about having to effectively ask for transparency from a government that is in total denial of this.”

Kerns, meanwhile, who is also the Conservatives’ shadow minister for home affairs, accused the Labour Government of being “blindly obsessed” with greenlighting solar plants without engaging with the concerns around China’s solar panel industry.

Car production set for 70-year low as cheaper Chinese EVs flood the market

“Some of the messaging coming out of Government at the moment is a green light to say ‘we don’t care how things are produced’,” she said.

She warned the UK would become the “dumping ground for the most egregious slave labour-created solar panels.”

“Because the UK hasn’t done anything we risk becoming a dumping ground,” Kearns added, calling for the UK to introduce specific legislation against companies using Uyghr force-labour-made polysilicon.

Chris Hewett, CEO of Solar Energy UK, an industry body representing British energy sector companies, questioned whether Trump’s tariffs on China would have that great an effect on the influx of Chinese solar panels into the UK as the US had become more reliant on their own green energy infrastructure in recent years.

“You have to remember what solar energy is displacing is the import of fossil fuels from the Middle East and Russia,” he said, stressing that solar energy was “much better for our energy security and balance of payments”.

Solar Energy UK with Solar Power Europe is also running a supply-chain transparency initiative to “ensure the global solar energy supply chain is free of human rights abuses.”

Hewett said he was “increasingly confident” that any panel sold in the UK that was part of the Solar Stewardship Initiative was sourced from areas where “forced labour risks do not exist”.

A Government spokesperson said: “Modern slavery is a barbaric crime that dehumanises people for profit. We are committed to tackling it in all its forms and to giving survivors the support and certainty they need to rebuild their lives.

“That’s why we’re keeping our approach to how the UK can best tackle forced labour and environmental harms in supply chains under continual review and working internationally to enhance global labour standards.”

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