(Bloomberg) — Solar panels imported from China and Taiwan
are harming U.S. manufacturers, an independent trade panel ruled
in a decision that will trigger punishing tariffs on the
renewable-energy goods.
The decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission
Wednesday is the final step for imposing dumping and anti-subsidy duties on the products. The case is a high profile
dispute between the economic powerhouses, as imports to the U.S.
totaled more than $2 billion and both nations seek to develop
cleaner energy.
SolarWorld AG, a Bonn-based company with a factory in
Oregon, persuaded the Commerce Department in 2012 to apply
tariffs on solar cells from China. After the tariffs kicked in,
imports of panels with cells made in Taiwan boomed, and
SolarWorld a year ago said Chinese makers had shifted production
to skirt the tariffs. They filed a new case seeking tariffs on
panels from China, and cells and panels from Taiwan.
The Commerce Department had already set subsidy rates as
high as 49.79 percent on imports from China, and dumping rates
that averaged 52.13 percent for most importers for China. The
highest dumping rate was set at 165.04 percent. Taiwanese
producers face duties ranging from 11.45 percent to 27.55
percent, the department said.
With the separate decision by the ITC today, those duties
will go into effect. The ITC panel decides only if U.S. makers
are being harmed by the imported products.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Drajem in Washington at
mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jon Morgan at
jmorgan97@bloomberg.net
Steve Geimann