The government of Donald Trump announced Monday New tariffs up to 3,521% to imports of solar teams from four countries in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.
The decision arises after a A year research of the Department of Commerce -Be the mandate of Joe Biden– That concluded that these nations offered illegal subsidies to its manufacturers and They sold products at prices lower than costa practice known as “dumping”.
Anti -dumping and compensatory rights, as they are known, are designed to compensate for the value of supposed subsidies and unfair prices, according to calculations from the trade department.
New Trump tariffs on renewable energies: uncertainty for the development of the sector
The measure represents a victory for the American solar industry, which for years denounces unfair competition. Companies like Hanwha Q Cells and First Solar Inc. They appear among the main beneficiaries of the resolution, which adds to a more aggressive commercial policy.
While tariffs are destined to benefit national manufacturers, They will also affect US renewable energy developers that depended for a long time on cheap foreign supplies, which increases uncertainty in a sector affected by political and normative changes in Washington.
These new levies will be added to the generalized tariffs imposed by the President Donald Trumpwhich disrupted supply chains and world markets.
“This is a decisive victory for the American manufacturing industry,” he said Tim Brightbillco -president of the Wiley International Department of International Trade and main lawyer of the coalition of solar companies that took the case.
The conclusions confirm “what we knew for a long time: that solar companies based in China have been cheating to the system, undermining US companies and costing sustenance to US workers,” said Brightbill.
American renewable energy imports
Although new tariffs seek to protect the national industry, they also generate concern among renewable energy developers that depend on imported solar panels at low cost. In 2023, the US imported around US $12,900 million in solar teams of these four countries, which is equivalent to 77% of the total imports in the sectoraccording to data from Bloombergnef.
The measure could make clean energy projects more expensive at a key moment for the energy transition, especially when the law for the reduction of inflation driven by Biden had generated a wave of investments in solar factories within the country. For many analysts, this commercial hardening puts in tension the climatic objectives with the immediate needs of the energy market.
Source: Ambito
