A US Commerce Department probe into solar imports from Southeast Asia has the potential to freeze investment in the US industry, warned the Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
Such a probe could expose the imports to retroactive duties, said the SEIA, reports Bloomberg.
The Commerce Department is set to decide by March 25 whether to formally investigate if solar products from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia circumvent longstanding solar tariffs.
Because the four countries supply 80 per cent of US solar imports, the dispute threatens to intensify existing headwinds for America's solar industry, which is already seeing slower growth amid higher costs, shipping delays and supply-chain disruptions. That's a challenge to President Joe Biden's efforts to boost renewable power projects nationwide.
'It's just not a rational business risk to put product on the water and send it here when you don't know what it's going to cost when it gets here,' said SEIA chief executive Abigail Ross Hopper.
Commerce is responding to a petition from Auxin Solar, a small California-based manufacturer, which argues Chinese manufacturers are circumventing roughly decade-old duties by assembling their products in the four Southeast Asian nations. Supporters of a probe say the result is continued cheap imports that undermine US trade laws and disadvantage American manufacturers.
SeaNews Turkey
Such a probe could expose the imports to retroactive duties, said the SEIA, reports Bloomberg.
The Commerce Department is set to decide by March 25 whether to formally investigate if solar products from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia circumvent longstanding solar tariffs.
Because the four countries supply 80 per cent of US solar imports, the dispute threatens to intensify existing headwinds for America's solar industry, which is already seeing slower growth amid higher costs, shipping delays and supply-chain disruptions. That's a challenge to President Joe Biden's efforts to boost renewable power projects nationwide.
'It's just not a rational business risk to put product on the water and send it here when you don't know what it's going to cost when it gets here,' said SEIA chief executive Abigail Ross Hopper.
Commerce is responding to a petition from Auxin Solar, a small California-based manufacturer, which argues Chinese manufacturers are circumventing roughly decade-old duties by assembling their products in the four Southeast Asian nations. Supporters of a probe say the result is continued cheap imports that undermine US trade laws and disadvantage American manufacturers.
SeaNews Turkey
