China Solar Panels may Face Retrospective Duties to Punish Import Surge

The US division of German photovoltaic manufacturer SolarWorld has announced that Washington will indeed impose retroactive duties on Chinese-made solar panels, should the US Commerce Department ultimately decide that such fees are warranted. The company had strongly argued in favour of retroactive duties, claiming that the announced expiration of a US subsidy programme triggered a surge in solar panel imports from China before access to the programme was cut off on 31 December.

SolarWorld’s 30 January announcement, made jointly with the six other companies in the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) explained that, should the US agency decide to impose preliminary countervailing duties next month, these duties would apply retroactively on panels imported into the US from 3 December 2011 onwards.

The company said that the Commerce Department had found evidence of “massive imports” of Chinese solar panels in late 2011, and that “critical circumstances” might exist that would impact the agency’s upcoming decision.

Import surge

The import surge is why the solar manufacturer had sought the “critical circumstances” finding, which would allow for the duties to be imposed 90 days retroactively, Brightbill told Bloomberg.

The Treasury Department’s now-expired 1603 programme offered cash subsidies of up to thirty percent for renewable energy projects if they commenced construction on projects by 31 December 2011, and could complete construction by 31 December 2016.

SolarWorld has been a vocal critic of China’s solar industry, arguing that Beijing’s subsidies and preferential policies unfairly benefit Chinese manufacturers. These concerns led to a complaint being filed by SolarWorld at the US International Trade Commission in 2011. This complaint was upheld on 2 December 2011, resulting in continuing further investigation.

SolarWorld had originally asked that duties be imposed on any solar import from a Chinese company received after 15 November 2011. The complaint cites a remarkable 76 percent spike in imports from Chinese solar giant Suntech Power - the world’s largest photovoltaic panel manufacturer - between October 2011 and November 2011. Similarly, major Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar reportedly saw exports to the US triple in the first half of December 2011, when compared with the first half of November.

The US Commerce Department is expected to make a preliminary decision on 2 March on whether to impose countervailing duties, postponing a decision that had originally been expected in mid-February. A preliminary decision on the dumping part of the complaint is expected in late March.