US trade officials finalised steep tariff levels on most solar cells from Southeast Asia, a key step toward wrapping up a year-old trade case in which American manufacturers accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.
The case was brought last year by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar Inc and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing.
The petitioner group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam of shipping panels priced below their cost of production and of receiving unfair subsidies that make American goods uncompetitive.
The tariffs unveiled on Monday (Apr 21) vary widely depending on the company and country, but were broadly higher than the preliminary duties announced late last year.
Combined dumping and countervailing duties on Jinko Solar products from Malaysia were among the lowest at 41.56 per cent. Rival Trina Solar’s products from its operations in Thailand face tariffs of 375.19 per cent.
Neither Jinko nor Trina were immediately available for comment.
Products from Cambodia would face duties of more than 3,500 per cent because its producers elected not to cooperate with the US probe.
“These are very strong results,” Tim Brightbill, an attorney for the US manufacturing group, said on a call with reporters.
“We are confident that they will address the unfair trade practices of the Chinese-owned companies in these four countries, which have been injuring the US solar manufacturing industry for far too long.”
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