U.S. Solar Firm Seeks Tariff Action Against Asian Nations
U.S. Solar Firm Seeks Tariff Action Against Key Asian Nations
(Bloomberg) -- Auxin Solar Inc. is asking the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate possible efforts to circumvent tariffs with the imports of equipment from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
The company alleges the solar imports use parts or components from China and that producers are assembling equipment in the Southeast Asian nations as a way of skirting duties, according to a filing made to the department in Washington.
The move essentially revives a failed effort by a group of anonymous solar manufacturers to spur a separate probe that was ultimately rejected by the Commerce Department in November. However, the companies behind that push kept their identity under wraps despite pressure from the Commerce Department to unmask themselves. By contrast, with its filing Tuesday, California-based Auxin is making a public push to effectively expand the reach of roughly decade-old tariffs against Chinese solar imports.
The petition heightens trade concerns for solar importers and manufacturers. President Joe Biden’s administration last year banned solar equipment using raw materials originally from China-based Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. in an effort to confront alleged human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. The restrictions have led to blocks on imports of solar modules from key global producers including Longi Green Energy Technology Co.
Last week, Biden opted to extend separate tariffs on some imported solar equipment along with an exemption for two-sided panels widely used in utility-scale solar projects.
Renewable power advocates took a dim view of the petition, with Heather Zichal, the chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, calling it a “meritless” bid “for a competitive advantage that hurts American jobs and endangers solar projects” in the U.S.
“These filings are a costly distraction from the need to quickly deploy renewable energy at scale,” Zichal said in a statement.
U.S. renewable power advocates have warned that expanded trade barriers threaten to slow the energy transition and solar installations inside the country, particularly new curbs on equipment produced in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Those countries account for most solar imports by the U.S.
“This is yet a new risk for the U.S. solar industry,” analysts at Roth Capital Partners said in a note Tuesday.
The Biden administration has less latitude on the matter in comparison with other trade disputes involving solar equipment, and the Auxin petition appears to address deficiencies in the failed anti-circumvention claim manufacturers pursued last year, Roth said in its note to clients.
Chinese firms dominate the manufacture of photovoltaic panels, a multi-step process often occurring in separate factories that can be located in different provinces or even countries. Several suppliers have opened plants in other nations in recent years for the last stage, assembling the solar modules.
Auxin argues that a circumvention finding is needed now “to restore the integrity” of duties applied roughly a decade ago, when the Commerce Department concluded Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules were being subsidized and dumped on the U.S.
“Instead of fairly pricing their CSPV cells and modules for export to the United States, Chinese CSPV producers continued their assault on domestic producers — this time from third country export platforms,” Auxin says in its filing.
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