Solar, storage industries call on Commerce Department to reject petition for new tariffs
Roughly 240 solar and storage companies and organizations are imploring the U.S. Department of Commerce to reject a petition for new anti-circumvention tariffs on solar products.
The Commerce Department must make its preliminary determination in Auxin Solar’s anti-circumvention case by Dec. 1. More than 240 companies sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stating that an affirmative determination is not justified and will once again stifle America’s ability to deploy clean energy.
The U.S. solar and storage industry firmly believes the case lacks legal merit. Solar cell and module manufacturing requires specialized equipment and is an intensive process. Because of the significant and major manufacturing work done in the Southeast Asian countries named in the investigation, the case does not meet the standard for circumvention, they said.
“We respectfully request that you issue a negative preliminary determination in the above-referenced investigations. The ample evidence in these proceedings verifies that solar cell and module manufacturing involves technologically sophisticated operations which greatly exceed the anticircumvention statute’s “minor or insignificant processing” limitation. It would be an improper expansion of U.S. anti-circumvention law for the Department to conclude otherwise,” the letter to Raimondo stated.
One of the organizations that signed the letter was the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
“President Biden took a crucial near-term step over the summer to free up a gridlocked solar supply chain, but companies won’t be able to capitalize on the administration’s landmark climate policy if this baseless case isn’t thrown out,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the SEIA, said. “The Inflation Reduction Act has launched a steady stream of manufacturing investments in the United States, but more tariffs will only undermine this success.”
The manufacturing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act put SEIA’s goal of 50 GW of U.S. solar production by 2030 within reach. However, SEIA officials point out that the Commerce Department could crush demand with unjustified tariffs. The organizations are calling on Commerce to drop this investigation so the solar and storage industry can continue to invest in domestic manufacturing production.
