According to comprehensive foreign media reports, the US Department of Commerce has rejected a request to launch an investigation into Asian solar panel manufacturers.
In 2012, the Obama administration imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese-made solar panels, claiming that Chinese companies sold solar panels at below cost to gain market share. After that, some large domestic photovoltaic manufacturers have set up factories overseas one after another.
In August, an organization called the American Solar Energy Manufacturers Anti-China circumvention Association (A-SMACC) filed a petition asking the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate whether specific Chinese companies, including Longji, Jingke, Xiexin and Trina Solar, have circumvented anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed by the United States by setting up factories in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.
The A-SMACC is said to have demanded additional tariffs of 50 to 250 per cent on imports of panels from the three countries, which provided 80 per cent of imports of crystalline silicon solar panels in the US in the first half of 2021.
The members of the A-SMACC Association are an unknown number of anonymous companies. The association said that disclosing the identity of its members could expose them to retaliation from the Chinese industry.
According to reports, an official from the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce wrote to the association's lawyers that the information needed to evaluate the investigation petition could not be obtained by the Commerce Department because members of the association spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Commerce Department's decision made American solar developers breathe a sigh of relief. American solar developers rely heavily on cheap imports to improve the competitiveness of their projects. They claim that if excessive tariffs are imposed on imported solar panels, plans for utility projects will be delayed or changed, weakening the development of the US photovoltaic industry, causing massive unemployment and hampering the Biden administration's goals of supporting clean energy and tackling climate change.
The U.S. Solar Industry Association (U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association)) praised the decision, saying it "provides a certainty for companies to keep investing, hire more workers, and deploy more clean energy."
"if this investigation is launched, it will have long-term devastating consequences for our country's energy goals and the current 230000 Americans in the solar industry," (American Clean Power Association), an industry group, said in a statement.
But for U. S. solar panel makers, the Commerce Department's decision is a major setback.
(First Solar Inc.) of first Solar, the largest manufacturer of solar panels in the United States. At one point, the share price fell 3% in after-hours trading in the United States. Jingke Energy, which is listed in the United States, rose in late trading and rose 1.7% after trading. In the A-share market, Longji shares rose more than 3% at one point in the morning, and Trina Solar Energy rose nearly 7% in the morning.
