US trade officials finalised tariff levels on solar cells and panels from Southeast Asia, a key step towards wrapping up a year-old trade case brought by American manufacturers that accuse their overseas rivals of flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.
The decision comes after the Commerce Department last year imposed preliminary anti-dumping and anti-subsidy countervailing duties on solar equipment from Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The case was brought 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.
The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Southeast Asia of shipping panels priced below their cost of production and of receiving unfair subsidies that make American goods uncompetitive.
The group was not immediately available for comment.
According to a decision posted on the US Commerce Department’s website on Monday, the agency calculated dumping duties of 6.1 per cent to 271.28 per cent, depending on the company and country. Anti-subsidy countervailing duties were between 14.64 per cent and 3,403.96 per cent.
