U.S. Solar Panel Makers Push for Fair Trade Enforcement

A group of leading U.S. solar panel manufacturers are calling on the U.S. Administration to slap retroactive duties on cheap imports from Vietnam and Thailand to safeguard American businesses and jobs. 

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which includes large solar panel makers, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Commerce Department asking it to consider retroactive tariffs on the two Southeast Asian countries. 

In recent months, exports of solar panels from Vietnam and Thailand have soared after the U.S. started investigating China’s unfair trade practices and its efforts to circumvent duties by relocating subsidized production in Southeast Asia. 

The U.S. solar panel manufacturers cited in its complaint, as carried by Reuters, that the volume of solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand jumped in the second quarter by 39% and 17%, respectively, from the first quarter of the year. 

Vietnam and Thailand have boosted their solar panel exports to the United States ahead of potential U.S. tariffs. These increased imports could represent “critical circumstances” that could warrant retroactive duties, the U.S. solar manufacturers’ group said.  

The same group petitioned in April U.S. President Joe Biden to impose import tariffs on panels imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The reason: low prices that are killing the petitioners’ reason to exist. 

“America's solar manufacturing industry is on the cusp of tremendous growth that will create jobs and change the trajectory of our clean energy transition for decades to come,” the petitioners said at the time. 

“We are seeking to enforce the rules, remedy the injury to our domestic solar industry, and signal that the U.S. will not be a dumping ground for foreign solar products,” said Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley’s International Trade Practice and lead counsel to the petitioner. 

In May, the U.S. Administration launched several actions to protect U.S. solar manufacturers from China’s trade practices, including “monitoring import surges and oversupply.” 

“Imports of solar modules from Southeast Asia, where PRC manufacturers have been found to be circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties, have surged over the last year,” the White House said. 

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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