The vote of the US Trade Panel opens the door to imposing stiff tariffs on solar imports

The U.S. International Trade Commission decided on Tuesday that a flood cheap imports from Southeast Asian countries threatened or materially damaged domestic solar panel manufacturers. This decision brings the United States closer to imposing heavy duties on these goods. The three-member ITC voted "yes", meaning that the Commerce Department would issue orders to enforce anti-dumping and countervailing tariffs on solar panels imported from Malaysia. Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. This was a decision the agency made last month. This vote settles a trade dispute that lasted a year, in which American companies accused Chinese firms of flooding the market unfairly with cheap goods produced in Southeast Asia. Since then, President Donald Trump pursued a strategy of imposing tariffs on imported goods to protect the manufacturers of U.S. made products.

The Commerce Department can only impose tariffs when the ITC determines that domestic industries were harmed or endangered by foreign competitors receiving unfair subsidies and dumped products on the U.S. Market.

A brief announcement was made on the ITC website about the results of the vote. It wasn't immediately clear what each commissioner had voted.

Last year, Hanwha Qcells from Korea, Arizona's First Solar Inc. and several smaller producers brought the trade case to protect billions in investment in U.S. Solar Manufacturing.

"(Tuesday's) vote leaves no doubt: these Chinese-headquartered companies have been violating trade laws by overwhelming the U.S. market with unfairly cheap, dumped and subsidized solar panels - and they continue to do so from third-party markets around the world, undermining U.S. industrial strategy and stunting new investment," Tim Brightbill, the lead attorney for the petitioning group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, said in a statement.

This cannot be allowed to continue. Brightbill stated that "Our growing American industry deserves, and will now have the opportunity to compete fairly", Brightbill. The majority of solar panels used in the United States come from Asia. In 2022, Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act created a tax incentive for clean energy manufacturing. Since then, more than 100 solar farms have been announced, or expanded, according to American Clean Power Association, a trade group. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a leading U.S. trade group for solar energy, has said that new tariffs will actually hurt domestic producers because they increase costs for panel purchasers.

Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA's President, said that the decision of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday was concerning for American solar companies and the U.S. Solar Industry. The USITC's affirmative injury determination will add an additional layer to tariffs for solar products that American companies require to build projects and increase domestic manufacturing. Reporting by Nicholae Groom, Editing by Will Dunham

(source: Reuters)