Biden Administration to Waive Solar Import Tariffs for Two Years
Seeking to resolve a conflict in the solar industry, the White House plans to waive some tariffs on solar imports to ensure steady supplies while invoking the Defense Production Act to boost domestic manufacturing of solar parts.
“It is going to put wind in the sails of construction projects all across the country,” a senior administration official said Monday. “We are going to grow and we aren’t playing for second place here.”
The two-year waiver on tariffs is aimed at easing fears among utilities and others that a Commerce Department investigation would lead to new import duties on solar parts from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
That investigation was spurred by California-based Auxin Solar Inc., a small maker of solar panels, which accused Chinese companies of circumventing tariffs by routing operations through those four nations. The Commerce Department had said the investigation could lead to retroactively imposed levies on imports from those countries, which are major suppliers to the U.S. solar industry.
Auxin Chief Executive Mamun Rashid blasted the decision. “President Biden is significantly interfering in Commerce’s quasi-judicial process,” he said.
“By taking this unprecedented—and potentially illegal—action, he has opened the door wide for Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law,” Mr. Rashid said in a statement.
The senior administration official said the president is acting under his emergency authority under the Tariff Act to waive the levies, and said the Commerce Department investigation would proceed.
Trade groups representing utilities and renewables developers cheered the news and said it would go far in resolving threats to their projects.
Companies that install solar projects, such as
Sunrun Inc.
and
Sunnova Energy International Inc.
rose about 15% in early trading, while
SunPower Corp.
and
Enphase Energy Inc.
climbed roughly 8%.
Shares of
NextEra Energy Inc.,
a utility and one of the world’s largest renewables companies, added about 3%. Monday’s advance pares some of the sector’s recent losses.
Abigail Ross Hopper,
president and chief executive officer of the Solar Energy Industries Association, applauded the decision.
“While the Department of Commerce investigation will continue as required by statute, and we remain confident that a review of the facts will result in a negative determination, the president’s action is a much-needed reprieve from this industry-crushing probe,“ she said in a statement. ”During the two-year tariff suspension window, the U.S. solar industry can return to rapid deployment while the Defense Production Act helps grow American solar manufacturing.”
—Amrith Ramkumar contributed to this article.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Seeking to resolve a conflict in the solar industry, the White House plans to waive some tariffs on solar imports to ensure steady supplies while invoking the Defense Production Act to boost domestic manufacturing of solar parts.
“It is going to put wind in the sails of construction projects all across the country,” a senior administration official said Monday. “We are going to grow and we aren’t playing for second place here.”
The two-year waiver on tariffs is aimed at easing fears among utilities and others that a Commerce Department investigation would lead to new import duties on solar parts from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
That investigation was spurred by California-based Auxin Solar Inc., a small maker of solar panels, which accused Chinese companies of circumventing tariffs by routing operations through those four nations. The Commerce Department had said the investigation could lead to retroactively imposed levies on imports from those countries, which are major suppliers to the U.S. solar industry.
Auxin Chief Executive Mamun Rashid blasted the decision. “President Biden is significantly interfering in Commerce’s quasi-judicial process,” he said.
“By taking this unprecedented—and potentially illegal—action, he has opened the door wide for Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law,” Mr. Rashid said in a statement.
The senior administration official said the president is acting under his emergency authority under the Tariff Act to waive the levies, and said the Commerce Department investigation would proceed.
Trade groups representing utilities and renewables developers cheered the news and said it would go far in resolving threats to their projects.
Companies that install solar projects, such as
Sunrun Inc.
and
Sunnova Energy International Inc.
rose about 15% in early trading, while
SunPower Corp.
and
Enphase Energy Inc.
climbed roughly 8%.
Shares of
NextEra Energy Inc.,
a utility and one of the world’s largest renewables companies, added about 3%. Monday’s advance pares some of the sector’s recent losses.
Abigail Ross Hopper,
president and chief executive officer of the Solar Energy Industries Association, applauded the decision.
“While the Department of Commerce investigation will continue as required by statute, and we remain confident that a review of the facts will result in a negative determination, the president’s action is a much-needed reprieve from this industry-crushing probe,“ she said in a statement. ”During the two-year tariff suspension window, the U.S. solar industry can return to rapid deployment while the Defense Production Act helps grow American solar manufacturing.”
—Amrith Ramkumar contributed to this article.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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