The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said on May 20 it has
determined that the solar industry is threatened with material injury by subsidized imports from Southeast Asian countries, warranting tariffs.
The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee had brought the challenge before the USITC in April 2024 against solar cells imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, arguing that China-backed solar companies manufacturing in Southeast Asian countries were dumping products onto the American market.
This kicked off a year-long investigation, and this week’s determination will result in new tariffs on imports of solar products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, to be issued on June 9. “Today’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, lead counsel to the trade group and co-chair of Wiley’s International Trade Practice,
said in a statement.
The Commerce Department began issuing tariffs on Chinese solar cells in
2012, later determining that some of these companies were circumventing tariffs by shipping through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, or Vietnam.
The Commerce Department had already determined that the governments of Malaysia and Vietnam also subsidized the solar industry, resulting in solar panels sold at less than a fair price in the United States, and USITC found in its latest determination that the governments of Cambodia and Thailand do so as well. It noted that negative findings were made of imports from Vietnam, but no critical circumstances findings were made regarding imports from Thailand.
USITC Chair Amy Karpel and Commissioners David Johanson and Jason Kearns unanimously voted in favor of the American trade group. The commission will publish a report of the investigation by June 30.
The Commerce Department had in April determined these companies were dumping solar products on the American market with subsidies from the Chinese regime, signaling similar tariffs based on transnational subsidies may be in the pipeline.
The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee calculates that the subsidies from the Southeast Asian companies warrant tariffs as high as 3,521 percent.
Companies in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam have challenged these determinations, with the U.S. Court of International Trade upholding Commerce Department decisions as recently as May 19.
A separate solar trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association, warned that the additional layer of tariffs will “raise costs for the solar products American companies need to build projects and grow domestic manufacturing.”
The association’s president, Abigail Ross Hopper, said in a
statement that the U.S. solar industry has “grown sixfold in the last two years,” urging Congress to support tax credits for domestic solar manufacturing to offset the effect of tariffs.
