US clears way for stiff tariffs on Southeast Asian solar imports

The US International Trade Commission determined on Tuesday that domestic solar panel makers were materially harmed or threatened by a flood of cheap imports from four Southeast Asian nations, bringing the United States a step closer to imposing stiff duties on those goods.

The “yes” vote by the three-member ITC means the US Commerce Department will issue orders to enforce countervailing and anti-dumping tariffs on solar products imported from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam that the agency finalised last month.

The vote resolves a year-old trade case in which American manufacturers accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods from factories in Southeast Asia. Since that time, US President Donald Trump has pursued a broad strategy to impose tariffs on imported products to protect manufacturers of US-made goods.

The US Commerce Department cannot impose tariffs unless the ITC finds that the domestic industry was harmed or threatened by overseas rivals receiving unfair subsidies and dumping products in the US market.

The outcome of the vote was posted in a brief notice on the ITC’s website. It was not immediately clear how each commissioner voted.

The trade case was brought last year by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar Inc and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing.

  

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