U.S. Imposes Steep Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels
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Version 0 of 1. The Commerce Department began closing a chapter in a protracted trade conflict with China over solar equipment Tuesday, approving a collection of steep tariffs on imports from China and Taiwan. The decision, intended to close a loophole that had allowed Chinese manufacturers to avoid tariffs imposed in an earlier ruling by using cells — a major module component — made in Taiwan, found that the companies were selling products below the cost of manufacture and that the Chinese companies were benefiting from unfair subsidies from their government. The department announced anti-dumping duties of 26.71 percent to 78.42 percent on imports of most solar panels made in China, and rates of 11.45 percent to 27.55 percent on imports of solar cells made in Taiwan. In addition, the department announced anti-subsidy duties of 27.64 percent to 49.79 percent for Chinese modules. “These remedies come just in time to enable the domestic industry to return to conditions of fair trade,” said Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Americas. “The tariffs and scope set the stage for companies to create new jobs and build or expand factories on U.S. soil.” But others in the industry were quick to criticize the ruling. “Taxing solar trade undermines both the spirit and efficacy of pledges made by the U.S. and China to work together in the battle against global warming,” Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said in a statement. “These unnecessary taxes inhibit competition and put upward pressure on solar panel prices needed by U.S. homeowners, installers and utilities.” SolarWorld has had a string of victories since it originally filed a complaint in 2011. In 2012, the Commerce Department began imposing tariffs on Chinese imports. This year, in preliminary decisions in a second case, the department expanded the scope of the ruling to include imports from Taiwan, leading to tariffs of about 19 to 55 percent. The most recent decision makes that ruling final, but trade officials could not immediately say what the total tariff margins would be because there is some overlap between the anti-dumping and subsidy rates. The conflict has its roots in a flood of inexpensive Chinese solar products that pushed many American manufacturers out of business but proved a boon to developers and installers who could offer their services at greatly reduced prices. Some solar executives and advocates argue that the low prices have helped spur wider adoption of solar energy in the United States, creating thousands of customers and jobs. Others say that expansion has come at too high a cost in employment on the manufacturing side. As a result, the industry split over the case, a long-simmering conflict that bubbled to the surface Tuesday with executives from PetersenDean, a privately held roofing and solar company, calling for leaders at the Solar Energy Industries Association to resign because of the trade organization’s opposition to the case and its ties to Chinese-owned solar companies. Erin Clark, the company’s president of solar, said in a statement that the trade association’s position was in conflict with its stated purpose to keep America competitive. “SEIA has become nothing more than a tool used by Chinese companies to try and bankrupt and destroy American solar manufacturing,” he said. The Solar Energy Industries Association did not respond to a request for comment. American officials continue to hope for a negotiated settlement with the Chinese, but that has yet to materialize, and the trade issues are far from settled. The final determination in the original SolarWorld case, over Chinese cells, has been going through an appeal process that is not due to end until January. The main beneficiary of the ruling is likely to be Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation that is already the second-largest exporter of solar panels to the United States, after China and narrowly ahead of Taiwan. Western, Japanese and Korean companies are pouring investment into extensive operations there, seeing it as a stable country with a fairly low cost yet highly skilled labor force, and without China’s persistent trade frictions with the West. |