EU challenges Taiwan’s discriminatory rules on offshore wind projects

The EU is committed to leading the global green transition and, as such, welcomes Taiwan’s efforts to support green energy. However, such efforts must respect the global level playing field and comply with international trade rules. In the view of the EU, Taiwan’s local content eligibility and award criteria in energy capacity allocation auctions for offshore wind farms are inconsistent with its WTO commitment to not discriminate against imported goods and services.

The WTO-inconsistent local content requirements in Taiwan’s offshore wind policy have a negative impact on a sector of strategic importance to the EU. The EU wind energy sector alone has an annual turnover of €60 billion (2024 figure) and provided around 300,000 jobs in the EU in 2022. Under the REPowerEU targets, the number of jobs is estimated to grow to 936,000 by 2030.

Moreover, in discriminating against non-Taiwanese goods and services, the local content requirements mean efficiency losses and price increases, ultimately making the transition to a secure supply of renewable energy more difficult and costly and therefore hindering global climate ambitions. 

Next steps

The dispute settlement consultations that the EU is requesting are the first step in WTO dispute settlement proceedings. If they do not lead to a satisfactory solution within 60 days, the EU can request the WTO to set up a panel to rule on the matter.

The EU is hopeful that, owing to the close and productive relationship between the EU and Taiwan, a mutually-satisfactory solution can be found in the course of the dispute settlement consultations. 

For more information

Consultation request

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