The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) today affirmed its preliminary ruling that Chinese trade practices were harming the U.S. solar technology industry. The ruling stems from the submission of trade cases by domestic solar-industry companies on October 19, 2011, that argued the Chinese government was using improper subsidies to underwrite its solar industry export campaign and dumping products at artificially low prices in order to gain U.S. market share.
The ITC ruling means that a series of duties will be imposed on Chinese solar products. Under a previous U.S. Department of Commerce ruling, the duties will consist of 31.73 percent on imports of solar photovoltaic cells and panels from Suntech, 18.32 percent from Trina Solar, 25.96 percent from other companies that had requested but not received individual duty determinations and 249.96 percent from all other Chinese producers, including those controlled by the Chinese government. In addition, the Commerce Department ruling called for anti-subsidy duties of 14.78 percent for imports made by Suntech, 15.97 percent Trina Solar and 15.24 percent for all other Chinese manufacturers.
The Commerce department ruling did not include photovoltaic cells produced in other countries and assembled in China within its scope. Some domestic solar companies have announced they will seek separate enforcement actions for these products, following the ITC’s harmful trade practices finding announced today.