China and Taiwan Solar Products: AD/CVD Investigations to Continue After ITC Finds Injury
Antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China and Taiwan will continue, after the International Trade Commission on Feb. 14 voted that U.S. industry may be injured by dumped and illegally subsidized imports. The commission voted 4-0 in favor of a preliminary injury finding, with two of the commissioners not participating in the investigation.
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Solar World Industries America requested the investigations to close an alleged "loophole" in the existing AD/CV duty orders on solar cells from China for solar panels made in China from third-country cells (see 14010301). “Step by step, U.S. solar producers are returning to a day when they no longer are forced to compete with the government of China,” said Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc., after the vote (here). SolarWorld Industries America is the U.S. subsidiary of the German company SolarWorld. “Our own factories here in Oregon are surrounded by several campuses of Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor producer and a U.S. manufacturing success story," he said. "So please do not tell us that U.S. manufacturers who pioneered and built the solar industry cannot compete globally under conditions of fair trade.”
“With the ITC’s preliminary ruling in favor of SolarWorld’s petition to impose tariffs on imported solar products, it is now official: a German company is one step closer to manipulating U.S. trade procedure in order to prop up its own failing business and inflict harm on a job-creating industry," countered Jigar Shah of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy. By raising the cost of solar for American homeowners, SolarWorld is poised to inflict critical damage on an industry which last year added more than 20,000 solar installation, sales, and distribution jobs to the U.S. economy," he said “Just this past week, the U.S. Trade Representative publicly condemned the protectionist solar policies of India because, in his words, protectionist policies would ‘actually impede India's deployment of solar energy by raising its cost.’ CASE implores the U.S. government to adopt the same perspective before a burgeoning U.S. industry is harmed for the benefit of one German company.”
The next step is the Commerce Department’s preliminary determination, at which point AD and CV duty cash deposits may be required on imports of solar products from China and Taiwan. Commerce’s preliminary findings are due March 28 in the CV duty investigation, and June 11 in the AD duty investigation.