US Slaps 271 Percent Tariffs on Some Solar Imports From Asia

A worker installs solar panels on the rooftop of a house in Pomona, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued a preliminary determination in an anti-dumping probe, imposing tariffs of between 21.31 percent and 271.2 percent on solar panel imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam—including from several Chinese-owned producers—citing evidence of unfair pricing and trade practices.

The decision, announced by the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) on Nov. 29, follows complaints by U.S. manufacturers that Southeast Asian producers are dumping crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells—key components in solar panels—into the U.S. market at unfairly low prices, to the detriment of domestic producers.

The move represents the second major preliminary determination by the ITA this year. The prior Oct. 1 decision imposed tariffs as high as 292.61 percent on imports of photovoltaic cells—and the modules that are made with them—from the same four Southeast Asian countries that supply the majority of U.S. imports of such equipment.

A number of the companies affected by the tariffs—such as Jinko Solar, Trina Solar, and JA Solar—are owned or closely linked to Chinese entities. After the Commerce Department imposed earlier tariffs directly on China-made solar products, Chinese solar manufacturers set up operations in countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to continue exporting to the United States while avoiding those tariffs.

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, a coalition of U.S.-based solar manufacturers, including First Solar, Hanwha Q Cells USA, and Mission Solar Energy, spearheaded the case that led to the tariffs. The group accused Chinese-owned companies of exploiting Southeast Asian nations as bases to flood the U.S. market with underpriced products, undermining U.S. investment in solar manufacturing.

“America’s solar manufacturing industry is on the cusp of tremendous growth that will create jobs and change the trajectory of our clean energy transition for decades to come,” Tim Brightbill, lead counsel for the coalition, said in an April 24 statement announcing the filing of a set of antidumping and countervailing duty petitions. “However, this manufacturing renaissance is being threatened by China’s industrial policy, which has led to massive subsidization in China and Southeast Asia.”

Following the Commerce Department’s Oct. 1 determination, Brightbill said in a statement that the move represented an “important early step in a year-long process to determine the amount of illegal government subsidies benefiting these companies.”

The Commerce Department’s Nov. 29 determination includes a 21.31 percent tariff on Jinko Solar products made in Malaysia and 56.51 percent for those produced in Vietnam. China’s Trina Solar was handed a 77.85 percent dumping margin on products manufactured in Thailand and 54.46 percent for those it produces in Vietnam. Exporters of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells in Vietnam, which were not specified by name in the Commerce Department’s determination, were handed a 271.28 percent tariff rate.

Brightbill praised the latest move, saying that “we are moving closer to addressing years of harmful unfair trade and protecting billions of dollars of investment in new American solar manufacturing and supply chains.”

The Commerce Department’s final determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty cases are expected in April 2025. At that point, the U.S. International Trade Commission will review the findings and issue final orders in June.

While the preliminary tariffs are subject to revision, they represent an escalation in U.S. trade enforcement against unfair practices in the solar sector.