Biden Administration Doubles Tariff-Free Solar Cell Import Quota

The Biden Administration has more than doubled the volumes of solar cell imports that would be allowed to enter the United States tariff-free to help solar module producers relying on imported materials.

Tariffs on solar cell imports were introduced by former President Donald Trump to protect small American solar-product makers from competition from cheaper materials imported from Asia.

The Biden Administration is now boosting the so-called tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) cells, not partially or fully assembled into other products. These tariff-free quantities are now raised to a total of 12.5 gigawatts (GW) from 5 GW previously, the White House said in a proclamation.

For quantities exceeding the volumes allowed by TRQ, the tariff is currently at 14.25%.

In the autumn of 2023, a majority of the representatives of the U.S. solar manufacturing industry submitted a petition asking to modify the safeguard tariff measure by eliminating the TRQ and providing for tariff-free treatment of all imports of CSPV cells, or alternatively to increase the TRQ from 5 GW to 20 GW annually, the White House said.

“The petition explains how the domestic industry has continued to make a positive adjustment to import competition. It also explains that expected domestic module production coupled with the current lack of sufficient domestic cell production will require domestic module producers to rely on imports in the near term, in excess of the current 5 GW within-quota TRQ amount,” the U.S. Administration said.

After taking into consideration the petition and an interim monitoring report by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), President Joe Biden has “determined that expected domestic module production and associated imports of CSPV cells have increased such that it is necessary to modify the action taken…by expanding the TRQ to unchanging within-quota quantities of 12.5 GW,” according to the White House.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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