[SAN FRANCISCO] The US set new duties as high as 3,521 per cent on solar imports from four South-east Asian countries, delivering a win for domestic manufacturers while intensifying headwinds already threatening the country’s renewable power development.
The duties announced on Monday (Apr 21) are the culmination of a yearlong trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the US at rates lower than the cost of production. The investigation was sought by domestic solar manufacturers and initiated under former president Joe Biden.
While the duties are set to benefit domestic manufacturers, they also will pinch US renewable developers that have long relied on inexpensive foreign supplies, heightening uncertainty for a sector whipsawed by political and policy changes in Washington.
The levies will be in addition to new widespread tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump that have upended global supply chains and markets. The anti-dumping and countervailing duties, as they are known, are designed to offset the value of alleged unfair subsidisation and pricing, as calculated by the Commerce Department.
The department’s determination is a victory for domestic manufacturing that both Trump and Biden have tried to galvanise. Potential beneficiaries include Hanwha Q Cells and First Solar, among others.
Although the promise of subsidies and demand stoked by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act have helped drive a wave of interest – and investment – in new domestic solar panel factories across the US, manufacturers warned those factories were imperilled by foreign rivals selling their equipment at below-market prices.
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“This is a decisive victory for American manufacturing,” said Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley’s international trade practice and lead counsel for the coalition of solar companies that pursued the case.
The findings confirm “what we have long known: that Chinese-headquartered solar companies have been cheating the system, undercutting US companies and costing American workers their livelihoods”, he said.
Countrywide duties were set as high as 3,521 per cent for Cambodia, reflecting the country’s decision to stop participating in the investigation, according to the Commerce Department.
Companies not named in Vietnam face duties of as much as 395.9 per cent with Thailand set at 375.2 per cent. Country-wide rates for Malaysia were posted at 34.4 per cent. Jinko Solar was assessed duties of about 245 per cent for exports from Vietnam and 40 per cent for exports from Malaysia. Trina Solar in Thailand faces levies of 375 per cent and more than 200 per cent from Vietnam. JA Solar modules from Vietnam could be assessed at about 120 per cent.
The US imported US$12.9 billion in solar equipment last year from the four countries that would be subject to the new duties, according to BloombergNEF. That represents about 77 per cent of total module imports.
The duties hinge on separate action by the US International Trade Commission, which is set to decide in about a month whether producers are being harmed or are threatened by the imports.
After similar duties were imposed on solar imports from China roughly 12 years ago, Chinese manufacturers responded by setting up operations in other nations that were not affected by the tariffs. The US initiated a probe that was triggered by an April petition from the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which represents companies including First Solar, Hanwha Q Cells and Mission Solar Energy. BLOOMBERG
