American manufacturers argue solar imports injuring industry, file critical circumstances allegations
Solar

American manufacturers argue solar imports injuring industry, file critical circumstances allegations

Are some Southeast Asian countries rapidly dumping discounted solar products into the U.S. market to escape impending anti-dumping and countervailing duties? An alliance of major American solar manufacturers argue that’s exactly what the latest data shows.

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, represented by Wiley Rein LLP, filed critical circumstances allegations with the U.S. Department of Commerce last week concerning surges of imports from Vietnam and Thailand that it argues are “injuring the U.S. solar industry.” The imports, specifically, are crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from Vietnam and Thailand. 

“Critical circumstances” occur when the Department of Commerce determines that imports are rapidly increasing into the U.S. market after a product is subjected to an Antidumping and Countervailing Duties (AD/CVD) investigation. A critical circumstances finding can help offset import surges during an investigation. If the Secretary finds critical circumstances, duties can be imposed retroactively on merchandise entered up to 90 days before the preliminary determinations. For those duties to be finalized, the USITC must also find that the surge in imports undermines the relief to which the domestic industry is entitled.

To illustrate its point, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee points to a 39% increase in imports from Vietnam and a 17% increase from Thailand between April and June 2024 when compared to January through March 2024. Import levels from the two countries between April 2024, when Wiley filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions on behalf of the Alliance Trade Committee, and June 2024, were higher than the average recorded import levels in the preceding six months. Monthly imports from Vietnam surged to an all-time high of more than 2.5 gigawatts (GW) in June 2024 and averaged about 2.3 GW from April through June this year. In the preceding six months, the average import total from Vietnam was less than 1.5 GW/month.

Analysis of Critical Circumstances Trends for Certain Countries Subject to AD/CVD Investigations into c-SiPV Products
Source Country:Import Volume (Watts)  % Increase
Jan. – Mar. 2024Apr. – June 2024
Vietnam5,073,199,9377,061,187,43639.19%
Thailand3,570,039,9444,179,096,80317.06%
Courtesy: Wiley LLP

On June 7, 2024, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) made a unanimous affirmative preliminary determination that dumped and subsidized imports from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand are currently injuring U.S. solar cell and module manufacturers (or in the case of subsidized Cambodian imports, threaten such injury). 

“When we submitted our petitions a few months ago, several China-based companies operating in Thailand and Vietnam appear to have actively accelerated their U.S. solar exports, likely to evade impending duties. We were therefore compelled to file these critical circumstances allegations in response to these new surges of imports,” said Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley’s International Trade Practice and lead counsel to the petitioners. “We cannot allow these countries – and Chinese-owned companies – to continue harming the U.S. market unabated.”  

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee is a coalition of seven member and supporter companies: Convalt, First Solar, Meyer Burger, Mission Solar, Qcells, REC Silicon, and Swift Solar.

The Department of Commerce will now investigate and make preliminary and final determinations of whether critical circumstances exist. The entire AD/CVD investigation will take approximately one year, with preliminary determinations due in late September 2024 for countervailing duties and late November 2024 for antidumping duties. Final determinations of dumping, subsidization, and injury will likely occur in spring 2025. 

A Clean Energy Associates analysis commissioned by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) surveys the current health of the U.S. solar sector and explores the potential ramifications of new tariffs resulting from antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations into solar cells and modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. CEA finds new potential AD/CVD tariffs could increase costs to a level that significantly restricts solar supply and installations in the U.S., impeding America’s ability to create jobs, provide clean, affordable energy, and achieve climate targets.