The Department of Commerce has extended the deadline for issuing a final decision on antidumping/countervailing duty (AD/CVD) evasion investigations to August 17, 2023. A final decision was originally scheduled for next week.
International Trade Compliance Analyst, AD/CVD Operations, Office VII, Jose Rivera, said in a memo that an extensive summary of examples and counter-arguments were submitted by about 20 stakeholders, and that commerce is giving everyone a say. He said he needed more time to fully consider it.
Credit: Meyer Burger
Commercial tentative decision In December 2022, Chinese solar cell and panel producers were working in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as a way to avoid paying tariffs on Chinese solar products being installed. became clear. Since 2012. Commerce originally proposed AD/CVD on crystalline silicon cells using Chinese wafers and final panels made from Chinese wafers using the following three materials from China: Wafers manufactured outside of China using Chinese polysilicon are not considered China manufactured wafers.
Tariffs were proposed for all exports from four Southeast Asian countries, with the exception of four companies that were investigated and found not to have evaded tariffs. Boviet Solar (Vietnam).
The extended tariffs will not take effect until after June 6, 2024. President Joe Biden’s 2022 executive order. Suspended additional tariffs for two years.Congress is trying reverse management’s decision Through the Congressional Review Act (CRA), through the Congressional Review Act (CRA), but all the information coming from Capitol Hill suggests a failure of the law.
A diagram showing the stages of making a silicon solar panel. Illustrated by Al Hicks/NREL
Since the preliminary decision in December, solar panel makers have asked the Department of Commerce to clarify the department’s new “wafer forward” decision. The 2012 AD/CVD parameters imposed tariffs on silicon cells and modules. The country of origin is p-n junction activation, occurs in the development of solar cells. A preliminary decision for 2022 has taken tariff rules one step back to silicon wafers.
solar power world previously reported On extended tariff uneven solar panel manufacturer support. Auxin Solar is the only silicon solar panel maker supporting tariffs. In its original petition to the DOC, Auxin said Chinese solar producers operating in Southeast Asia were unfairly pricing their products to undercut US manufacturers. Auxin himself and other American manufacturers said they were struggling to compete with cheap imports. The only other supporter of the AD/CVD extension is his First Solar, a CdTe thin film manufacturer whose solar panel products are not included in the tariff scope. Many American panel makers, including Silfab Solar, have said in documents to the DOC that Auxin does not represent “the interests of the domestic solar industry as a whole.”
Until silicon cell manufacturing was established in the United States ( Three companies (suggesting to start by the end of 2024), all American solar panel assemblers will have to import solar cells, which are likely to come with Commerce Department-determined tariffs.
The circumvention investigation does not include tariff rates, Information previously released by Clean Energy Associates On how to set them:
“For manufacturers who also do business in China, the tariff rate for cells and modules manufactured in designated countries (Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) is the same as the tariff rate they pay for products exported from China. For companies that do not manufacture cells in China, but use Chinese wafers to manufacture cells in designated countries, the tariff rate will be based on the tax rate of the Chinese company that manufactures the wafers. (If that company has a tariff rate.) If these cells use Chinese wafers from a company that does not have a You will get a 15.24% countervailing duty rate on everything. ”