House Members From Both Parties Ask Commerce to 'Fully and Fairly' Examine Solar Circumvention Case
Members of Congress from Ohio, Texas, California, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, New York, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington are asking the Commerce Department to "fully and fairly examine allegations that Chinese solar companies are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties" on Chinese solar panels. Commerce said last week it needed more time to decide whether to take up a petition from Auxin Solar (see 2203090077). The letter, sent March 15, was led by Reps. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., and Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio.
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They note that Auxin alleges that Chinese companies are using factories in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, but since the subsidized supply chain, labor, research and development are in China, sending panels from those factories is a way of evading AD/CVD.
"The United States can and must robustly enforce its trade laws across the board," they wrote, and argued that if there is "full and fair enforcement," that would be compatible with strong domestic solar panel industry growth. They noted that domestic market share was almost 20% in 2019. The AD/CV duties on Chinese panels began in 2012.