London CNN —The European Union has launched an investigation into China’s state support for its wind turbine companies, intensifying a push to protect Europe’s industry from a flood of cheap Chinese imports. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said Tuesday that the probe would look into the development of wind farms in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria. The country’s global trade surplus in goods has soared in recent years and is now approaching $1 trillion. Vestager’s announcement as part of a speech in Princeton, New Jersey, comes just days after the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, opened a separate subsidies probe into Chinese companies bidding for a solar farm contract in Romania. In October, the European Commission launched an investigation into China’s subsidies for electric vehicle makers, which it suspects may be enabling these firms to keep prices super-low, creating unfair competition with European rivals.

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Persons: Margrethe Vestager, ” Vestager, Vestager Organizations: London CNN, European Union, European Commission Locations: Spain, Greece, France, Romania, Bulgaria, China, Princeton , New Jersey, Europe, Beijing, United States