A group of seven major solar manufacturers filed trade complaints Wednesday formally requesting that the Biden administration impose tariffs on solar products being exported from Southeast Asia to the United States.
The petitions were filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission. They come amid growing alarm within the U.S. solar industry that a flood of cheap Chinese exports of green energy technology is driving down solar panel prices and threatening the Biden administration’s efforts to develop a supply chain. national solar.
Chinese companies have been shifting production of solar products to neighboring countries to avoid existing tariffs, and American manufacturers believe new trade measures are needed to protect their businesses. The allegations call for investigations into the business practices of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Last year, the United States imported $12.5 billion worth of solar products from those countries, while prices for solar products fell about 50 percent.
The trade complaints center on imported solar cells, the parts of solar panels that convert light into electricity.
The call to impose new tariffs comes as the Biden administration has increasingly voiced complaints about China’s industrial overcapacity, warning that cheap Chinese exports of green energy technology and other types of products threaten to distort supply chains. global supply. Last week, President Biden asked his trade representative to triple some tariffs on steel and aluminum products from China, part of a series of measures aimed at helping protect American manufacturers from a surge in low-cost imports. cost.
Tim Brightbill, a trade lawyer representing the companies, said the U.S. solar industry was in a “very precarious” position and that investments made through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that were intended to boost American solar companies were threatened.
“China and Chinese-owned companies are manipulating our domestic market to benefit their economy and national security interests,” Brightbill said. “The United States is overly reliant on an adversary that has in the past weaponized dependence on the supply chain for an essential energy source.”
He added: “All of the recent investment in US solar manufacturing, valued at billions of dollars thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, is now at risk.”
Additional tariffs on solar energy imports are already looming.
In 2022, the administration announced a two-year delay in solar rates that were about to go into effect to allow for greater adoption of the technology in the United States. Last year, Biden vetoed legislation that would have reinstated the tariffs despite concerns from Democrats and Republicans that the administration was not holding China accountable for its unfair trade practices.
Those tariffs are likely to be reinstated in June. And an exemption that has allowed double-sided or bifacial solar panels to avoid existing import duties is expected to be reversed in the coming days.
In filing their complaints, the solar companies argued that additional tariffs are needed to take into account how Chinese companies have moved much of their solar manufacturing out of China to other Southeast Asian countries to circumvent trade restrictions.
Some U.S. solar companies have already been scaling back planned investments this year amid the price collapse.
The manufacturers that filed the complaint are Convalt Energy, First Solar, Meyer Burger, Mission Solar, Qcells, REC Silicon and Swift Solar.
If the Commerce Department launches the trade investigation, it would likely begin in mid-May and last about a year.