Update (of sorts) on solar panel tariffs (USA)

[Sailshabby]

(Via Politico)

ALL EYES ON SOLAR TARIFF REVIEW: The U.S. International Trade Commission will hold a hearing today to review the Trump administration's 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and modules. The solar industry is worried President Donald Trump will use the review as an opportunity to make the tariffs tougher, which would increase hardship on the industry, Pro's Eric Wolff reports this morning.

The Solar Energy Industries Association will tell the trade commission this morning that the tariffs have already cost Americans thousands of jobs, swamping the protective benefits of the tariff, which was imposed early last year and is set to expire in 2021. In fact, an SEIA market impact analysis found the tariffs will cost the industry 62,000 jobs over those four years and slow deployment by 10.5 GW.

SEIA was alarmed by the administration's recent decision to reverse course on a key exemption it had granted only four months before, as well as recent comments by trade adviser Peter Navarro that Chinese solar panel makers were still exploiting U.S. trade rules. "Our fear, however, is that the administration will somehow make them harsher and not provide relief," Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of SEIA, told reporters Tuesday. She added the administration believes it has "unfettered discretion" on trade.

The other side: Suniva, which along with the now defunct SolarWorld USA originally asked for the trade investigation that led to the tariffs, argued in its brief that the tariffs have succeeded in reinvigorating U.S. solar manufacturing so it hopes the administration will get tougher

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Bloomberg

— A trade court handed U.S. solar developers a victory by temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to kill a loophole that’s helped the industry weather tariffs on imported panels.

The U.S. Court of International Trade issued a preliminary injunction freezing the administration’s move to eliminate the provision that exempted bifacial — or double-sided — panels from duties.

The ruling is a win for Invenergy LLC, Clearway Energy Group LLC and other American solar-farm developers that will continue to have a way to circumvent tariffs that Donald Trump imposed in early 2018. The exclusion for bifacial panels will now remain in place for potentially months until the issue is resolved in court...

... The Trump administration surprised the renewable energy industry in June when it granted an exemption for bifacial panels. The carve-out was widely seen an escape hatch from the tariffs, which make solar farms more expensive to build and triggered widespread job losses. Less than four months after granting the reprieve, however, the government decided to yank it, saying it would’ve led to more imported panels.

➥ https://business.financialpost.com/p...by-trade-court