Brown, Casey Ask for AD/CVD Cash Deposit Pause for Solar Cells to End
Although the Biden administration took unprecedented action to shield solar panel importers from antidumping and countervailing duties -- after hearing from a third of the Senate's Democratic caucus and two Republicans that the anti-circumvention investigation was harming the solar installation industry -- the political pressure has not abated.
After the administration said no deposits could be collected until June 6, 2024, the Commerce Department found that solar cells and panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are circumventing the AD/CVD orders on solar cells from China, though it said New East Solar in Cambodia, Hanwha Q Cells and Jinko Solar in Malaysia, and Boviet Solar Technology in Vietnam are not suspected of producing goods that are really Chinese in their Southeast Asian factories (see 2212020064).
In addition to those carve-outs, solar panel importers also can avoid the trade remedies if their panels are made with Chinese wafers but source no more than two of the following components from China: silver paste, aluminum frames, glass, backsheets, ethylene-vinyl-acetate or junction boxes -- or if their panels do not use Chinese wafers.
The final determinations in the anti-circumvention inquiries are due in May.
Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., who earlier said the advocacy against the circumvention investigation was "an attempt to undermine the integrity of our trade enforcement laws and the independence of our federal workforce" (see 2205270004), are still arguing that the White House decision to pause the deposits was wrong. For some panels, the duties would total 254%.
They wrote March 3: "If we continue to allow imports that are being subsidized and/or dumped by foreign competitors to enter the U.S. market unchecked, we leave our climate ambitions subject to the will of foreign nations, including the Chinese Communist Party which has not hesitated in the past to use economic coercion and market access as a weapon against our partners and allies."
They said the Commerce Department undertook a thorough investigation and found companies from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia were circumventing AD/CVD orders on Chinese panels and cells. "This circumvention comes at the expense of American workers and industry," they wrote.
They noted that solar installations are 80% from imports -- the same data that opponents of the case point to.