Solar group warns expansion of tariffs could damage US industry

A key solar industry-group is urging the U.S. government to hold off on calls to investigate whether solar companies are skirting tariffs on Chinese-made products by moving manufacturing plants to Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, warning that extending tariffs will only further disrupt the American supply chain. 

The potential duties on imports would cost the U.S. solar industry 46,000 jobs and 18 gigawatts of installations, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo on Monday. 

In August, a group of anonymous solar manufacturers asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate imports from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam of solar cells and modules that they claim are unlawfully circumventing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on China. The department now has until Nov. 27 to decide whether to initiate an investigation.

“We respectfully ask the Department to throw out these meritless petitions and stop the self-interested efforts to halt supply chains and paralyze the American solar industry and its 231,000 U.S. workers,” SEIA said in its letter.