US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

Bad news for consumers in the US

Andrew Restuccia - THEHILL - May 17, 2012

Too late for Solyndra --Ed.

The Obama administration will impose hefty tariffs on Chinese solar imports after determining Thursday that the country is flooding the market with underpriced panels.

The Commerce Department, in a preliminary determination, ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to impose tariffs of between 31 and 250 percent on solar imports from various Chinese companies.

The decision is a victory for solar panel manufacturer SolarWorld Industries America, which, along with several other manufacturers, pressed the administration to impose the tariffs last year.


“The verdict is in,” SolarWorld President Gordon Brinser said in a statement. “In addition to its preliminary finding that Chinese solar companies were on the receiving end of at least 10 WTO-illegal subsidies, Commerce has now confirmed that Chinese manufacturers are guilty of illegally dumping solar cells and panels in the U.S. market. We appreciate the Commerce staff’s hard work on this matter.”... [Read More]

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/ar...#ixzz1vFRxGCXk

"Thursday's preliminary ruling by the Commerce Department said Chinese producers sold solar cells and panels below fair price and hurt American producers. If that is upheld, tariffs averaging 31 percent could be imposed on Chinese solar-panel imports.

Three major Chinese manufacturers — Yingli Green Energy Holdings Ltd., Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Trina Solar Ltd. — rejected accusations they were selling goods at improperly low prices.

Foreign competitors complain Chinese manufacturers get improper government support in the form of low-cost access to land, bank loans and other resources. Beijing acknowledges giving research grants and tax breaks but says those are in line with its free-trade commitments and practices by other governments.

"We will challenge with data all of those assumptions," said Trina's chief commercial officer, Mark Kingsley. In an interview, he said China's subsidies are lower than those provided by Germany and some other countries.

Kingsley said Trina's exports to the United States are unlikely to be affected if Washington raises tariffs. He said any solar cells or other parts affected by the duties can be replaced by components from other countries.

"We already have developed third-country component supply that allows to ship as normal to the U.S.," he said.

Chinese producers also warned that higher U.S. tariffs might raise the cost of solar equipment and hamper efforts to promote renewable energy.

"Tariffs are disruptive and destructive for the entire solar industry," said Yingli's chairman, Miao Liangsheng, in a statement.

The Commerce Department launched its investigation in November following complaints by a group of U.S. producers led by Oregon-based SolarWorld Industries America Inc., a unit of Germany's SolarWorld AG.

The complaints were amplified by the bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC after the California-based company received a $528 million U.S. government loan. Solyndra cited Chinese competition as one reason behind its failure.

Beijing responded by launching its own probe last November into whether U.S. government support for producers of wind, solar and other renewable energy technology is an improper trade barrier.

The dispute highlights tensions over whether China's heavily regulated economy should be treated as a free market. Beijing has pressed the United States and Europe to officially grant such status, which would make it harder to bring some dumping and other complaints, but none of its major trading partners has yet agreed.

With China treated as a non-market economy, U.S. regulators looked at other countries to decide what production costs for Chinese solar equipment manufacturers would be and estimate how much government support they received.

Shen, the Commerce Ministry spokesman, criticized that approach and said it resulted in an unfairly high comparison price.

"This is not consistent with China's development status, does not conform to the facts of China as a market economy and highlights the tendency of trade protectionism in the United States," Shen said.

Chinese solar equipment manufacturers warned earlier that sanctions could result in a loss of American jobs because U.S. companies are both buyers of Chinese products and suppliers of materials. They said Chinese manufacturers spend some $2 billion a year to buy materials such as polysilicon from U.S. suppliers.

Kingsley said Trina buys silicon from Michigan and manufacturing equipment from New Hampshire, plastic and glass from Japan and South Korea and other components from suppliers elsewhere in Asia.

"These products, by design, are incredibly international," he said. "The vast majority of this value chain is not in China." "

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

While I do support a tariff system in order to keep American manufacturers competitive, this act is an abuse of the system...

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

Consquences of this Tariff.

More Expensive Goods for anyone interested in getting solar panels in the USA.
Which will reduce demand for Solar panels.

Less incentive for US Companies to Innovate and compete for our dollar.
This also makes our own companies have less incentive to compete on the world scale which they will be slowly more and more out of date and less competitive with other Solar Panel makers.

Yet another industry that protected from outside competition by the Federal Government.

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

I'm generally in favor of free trade, but not if companies are dumping products below cost in an effort to drive their competitors out of business. In the longer run, that's bad for consumers. Competition is good.

Questions: How big are the tariffs? What are the relative elasticities of supply and demand ... and thus the price impact to consumers? How hard will consumers be hit? My opinion of this will depend on the answers to those questions, not an automatic "tariffs=bad!" response.

Full disclosure: Both sides of the equation matter to me locally. SolarWorld employs 1000 of my neighbors. But Portland is one of the largest per-capita consumers of solar panels in the US, and I may someday count myself among them.

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

Thats a common logical Falacy with Companies dumping products below cost.
It never happens, if it did it was not sustainable and usually hurt the Corporation that was doing the dumping.

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

It happens, but usually dumping below the cost of the competition is what irks the competition.

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

I'm a big fan of tariffs. It discourages slave labor and adds to the Federal revenue.

Re: US imposes tariffs on underpriced solar imports from Chinese companies
 

It's not sustainable. But it doesn't have to be. It just needs to be successful.

Large companies (or countries) aren't shy about, ahem, cross-subsidizing in order to deny money to competitors.