Bifacial Exemption in Solar Safeguard; Tariff on Other Panels Drops to 14.75% Feb. 7

The proclamation also says it's possible Mexico and Canada will be excluded from the safeguard. Canada had previously contested its exports being covered by the tariff, because under NAFTA and its successor, USMCA, Mexico and Canada are supposed to be exempt from safeguard actions unless their exports are found to be contributors to the injury to domestic producers (see 2106210024). President Joe Biden said the U.S. trade representative would negotiate with Mexico and Canada, and if the administration determines that imports from those countries would not diminish the effectiveness of the safeguard, they will be exempted. The International Trade Commission already said back in 2017 that Canada was not a contributor to the injury.

Buyers of solar panels hailed the bifacial exclusion, though some said they wished the safeguard was not renewed at all. The American Clean Power Association, which represents utilities, developers of utility-scale renewable energy projects and other industrial users of renewable energy, said, "The decision to extend the 201 exclusion for bifacial modules is a win for jobs and a win for the President’s climate agenda." The Solar Energy Industries Association, which represents both domestic manufacturers and installers and other solar industry players, said that while it was disappointed that the safeguard tariffs will continue for another four years, its members are grateful that the administration considered how the safeguards were affecting the domestic panel-makers and the spread of utility-scale solar projects. “Administration officials arrived at a balanced solution in upholding the exclusion for bifacial panels and increasing the tariff rate quota for cells," SEIA said, and said that excluding bifacial panels "is a massive step forward in producing clean energy in America and in tackling climate change."

However, other voices criticized the decision. The Coalition for a Prosperous America called the extension of the solar safeguards "largely toothless" because it exempts bifacial solar panels.

"This decision is an outright rejection of the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) unanimous and bipartisan recommendation that the 201 tariffs should be extended and include bifacial solar products," the group said. “The Biden administration’s 201 extension on solar products is an ineffective extension in name only,” CPA Chairman Zach Motti said. “Instead of pursuing policies to boost U.S. solar manufacturing and create green jobs in America, President Biden gutted the 201 solar safeguard tariffs by excluding bifacial panels -- a move that will ensure a tsunami of cheap Chinese solar products, made with forced labor and produced by dirty coal-fired power plants, flood into the U.S.”

Domestic manufacturer First Solar said, "Quite simply, the extension to the Section 201 safeguard excluding bifacial panels is no safeguard at all. ... With bifacial being the dominant Chinese solar product today, this decision effectively allows China to outflank American efforts to grow self-reliant solar supply chains." First Solar's CEO said that the decision puts 10 GW of domestic manufacturing expansions at risk.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said, “I am deeply disappointed that with the Biden administration’s decision on the solar safeguard today, the administration prioritized China’s anti-free-market practices over American jobs. While I am pleased to see the administration extend the solar tariffs for another four years, excluding bifacial solar panels from the safeguard -- despite warnings from a unanimous, independent International Trade Commission -- will have the opposite effect. It will do nothing to incentivize the investments necessary to expand domestic manufacturing of solar panels, and only continues our reliance on China and their forced labor practices for this technology.”