US Feds May Whack Up To 250% Tariff On Chinese Solar Panels

The fallout from the US solar ‘trade war’ has resulted in a hefty proposed antidumping duty (AD) on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, whether or not assembled into solar panels.
  
While a figure of around 31% has been the tariff most widely reported, this applies to 61 Chinese solar panel manufacturers. All other Chinese producers/exporters received a preliminary dumping margin of 249.96 percent according to a release from the Department of Commerce.
   
Companies hoping to get around the tariff by assembling the panels in other countries before exporting to the United States have also been thwarted as the duty will apply in those cases too.
   
The tax is not set in stone – yet. The Department of Commerce will make its final determination in early October 2012. If it decides to go ahead and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) also determines imports of solar cells from China “materially injure, or threaten material injury to” the USA’s domestic solar manufacturing industry, the Department of Commerce will issue an AD order. 
  
Suntech, one of the companies that would be subject to the AD duty, issued a statement last week; part of which reads:
  
“These duties do not reflect the reality of a highly-competitive global solar industry. Suntech has consistently maintained a positive gross margin as revenues are higher than our cost of production. We will work closely with the Department of Commerce prior to their final decision to demonstrate why these duties are not justified by fact,” said Andrew Beebe , Suntech ‘s Chief Commercial Officer.
  
SolarWorld, the company that spearheaded a campaign to see tariffs slapped on solar panels from China; applauded the Department’s announcement:
  
 “Commerce’s careful measures could help thwart China’s illegal drive to control the solar market and supplant manufacturers and jobs in America, the very country that invented, pioneered and innovated solar to today’s mainstream viability.” Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc. and leader of the Coalition for Solar Manufacturing (CASM).
  
In March, the U.S. Department of Commerce made a preliminary ruling that Chinese solar panel manufacturers have received an unfair market advantage from government subsidies.
  
There is no doubt China has been a driving force behind allowing more households to make the switch to solar through driving down prices – however, it has also played a role of some manufacturers outside China’s shores going to the wall.
  
How big an impact on solar uptake the tariffs will have remains to be seen, but some have even suggested the duties may even be a bad outcome for the planet.
  
For further detail on the history of the situation: USA China Solar ‘Trade War’ : What’s It All About?.