US Probe into China, Taiwan Solar Trade Practices Advances, Prelim Decision on CV Duties by End March, Anti-dumping Decision by Early June

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) voted last Friday to allow investigations into imports of Chinese and Taiwanese-made solar products to proceed, in a move expected to escalate tensions between two of the world’s largest traders.

A month ago, the US Commerce Department confirmed that it would be launching both anti-dumping and countervailing investigations into solar products imported from China and Taiwan, in response to a petition filed in December by SolarWorld Industries America. The specific imports under review are of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, which are the basic component of solar panels, modules, and/or laminates.

The company had claimed that Chinese producers were using Taiwanese and other foreign-made cells in their production processes, effectively skirting existing US anti-dumping and countervailing duties through a loophole created by a 2012 trade case.

However, whether this new case would advance to the next stage depended on whether the US ITC found signs of substantial injury to American producers. In the opinion released last week, the agency appeared to agree with SolarWorld, finding “reasonable indication” of material injury due to unfairly subsidised Chinese photovoltaic products and Chinese and Taiwanese photovoltaic products being sold at less than fair value.

SolarWorld welcomed the decision as an “advance in the renewable-energy industry’s return to fair competition.”

US industry reaction, however, has not been uniformly positive. On Friday, Jigar Shah, the president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) suggested that SolarWorld is “manipulating US trade procedure in order to prop up its own failing business.”

CASE, which represents various companies involved in the installation of solar panels, also argued that anti-dumping and countervailing duties could “inflict critical damage” on the solar industry.

Chinese officials, for their part, have warned that continuing these investigations could be counterproductive toward the increased deployment of renewable energy at the international level. “The US ITC has not realised that the two countries’ solar industries are tightly linked,” said an official from the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports at the Ministry of Commerce.

Following US ITC’s determination, the US Department of Commerce will continue its investigations and issue a decision on whether to impose preliminary countervailing duties by late March, and will make a separate decision on antidumping duties in early June.