The President at CPAC. Photo: Creative Commons
The panel manufacturing company that filed for bankruptcy this month and announced layoffs last month has now filed a petition to impose trade tariffs on foreign solar cells. In a press release, Suniva said its Section 201 petition was “designed to protect American jobs in the rapidly deteriorating U.S. solar manufacturing industry.”
“The modern wave of solar technology was born from research in U.S. universities, industry and government and U.S. manufacturers led the way in the commercialization of these technologies—and yet today, we stand fighting for the survival of jobs in an industry that the U.S. created,” said Matt Card, Suniva’s executive vice president of commercial operations. “Without today’s requested global safeguard, the U.S. solar manufacturing industry will die and we will not only lose solar manufacturing jobs today, but also those future jobs that will come from investing in the solar manufacturing industry of tomorrow.”
Card told Fox Business, “President Trump has talked for a year about the importance of U.S. manufacturing. Here’s a chance to make a meaningful difference in the manufacturing outlook in one of the fastest-growing technology segments in the U.S. market today.”
According to Fox Business, the petition asked the government to set a minimum price of 78 cents per watt that foreign manufacturers can charge for panels, 17 cents more than the current average panel price in the United States.
SolarWorld, the largest panel manufacturer in the United States, sent out a press release agreeing that the dumping is detrimental, but acknowledging that any tariffs must be carefully constructed to ensure U.S. solar can continue to grow. In a press release, SolarWorld said it “will assess the case brought by Suniva but prefers that any action to be taken against unfair trade shall consider all parts of the U.S. solar value chain.”
SEIA’s press release was more strongly worded. It said SEIA opposes the petition, saying, “we strongly urge the federal government to find a resolution that bolsters the competitiveness of American solar cell and panel manufacturing, which employs approximately 2,000 people in the U.S., without erecting new trade barriers.”