CHINA has offered a quota for its solar panel exports to the European Union.

But the amount is less than 20 percent below total Chinese exports last year, and conditional on their being taxed at low or zero rates, the Shanghai Securities News said yesterday. The two economic giants are in negotiations after the EU last month imposed an average anti-dumping tariff of 11.8 percent on solar panel imports from China. The country offered to cap its annual exports of solar components to the EU at 10 gigawatts, or half of the country's yearly output, the newspaper said, citing Wang Sicheng, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission.