The U.S. Commerce DepartmentCommerce Department gas says new duties on imports from some major Chinese solar panel makers will be imposed after they were found to be avoiding tariffs by completing solar panels in Southeast Asian countries.
The U.S. Commerce DepartmentCommerce Department probe found that units of BYD, Trina Solar, Longi Green Energy Technology, and Canadian Solar were circumventing existing tariffs on Chinese solar cells and panels that have been in place for a decade.
The affected companies could be subject to duties on their products made in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, which now account for about 80 percent of solar panel supplies in the U.S.
The duty rates the US already assesses on Chinese products will be the same, officials from the department said, noting that most of the rates are under 35 percent.
The department was asked to investigate in February by small U.S. solar panel maker Auxin Solar.
Commerce's investigations have confirmed Auxin's allegations of Chinese cheating, according to a statement by Auxin Chief Executive Mamun Rashid. The buyers of solar panels for both large utility projects and residential rooftops stressed that new tariffs would affect the already struggling market for access to solar energy equipment.
In an emailed statement, Abigail Ross Hopper, president of Solar Energy Industries Association SEIA, said Commerce did not target all imports from the subject countries, the only good news is that Commerce did not target all of the subject countries, as quoted by Reuters.
She said that this is a mistake we will have to deal with for the next several years.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the Commerce Department's new tariffs should take effect immediately.
President Biden should focus on revitalizing the American industry, not continuing our dependence on slave-made goods in the name of arbitrary climate goals, he said.