China and the European Union held trade consultations over cases concerning solar panels and telecoms on Friday, with Beijing calling for dialogue, rather than confrontation, to deal with trade friction, a source from the Ministry of Commerce close to the matter, told China Daily on condition of anonymity.

The EU last year announced that it would launch anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese solar panel manufacturers, while the United States imposed anti-dumping tariffs of up to 249.96 percent and countervailing duties of up to 15.97 percent on Chinese imports last year.

The bloc also threatened to investigate two major Chinese telecoms manufacturers, Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, for alleged subsidies they got from the government and for dumping goods in the European market.