Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 13 2022

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

this now.” panel installers who want cheap products. But
She continued: “Every day this investigation it angered the small US manufacturing sector,
hangs over the solar community is a day of lost including Auxin, which says China floods the
jobs and postponed solar projects critical to the market with solar products and it wants more
Administration’s climate agenda. Without a reli- protection.
able supply of solar modules while this investi- The White House said that the Biden admin-
gation proceeds, project construction will grind istration will extend a tariff of between 14% and
to a halt, American workers risk being laid-off 15% until 2026 on imports of crystalline sili-
or furloughed, and we will miss our emissions con solar products, the most common type of
targets – all so that another litigious manipulator material.
can be proven unfounded yet again.” But the Biden administration also moved
A similar petition was lodged last year by a to double the number of solar cells that can be
group named American Solar Manufacturers imported duty-free – this was to a higher level
Against Chinese Circumvention and failed. The than the US currently imports. The tariff rate
group included Auxin. quota will be 5 GW.
In early February, President Joe Biden said The Biden administration also said it was also
that his administration was extending tariffs exempting bifacial or two-sided panels, used in
on imported solar products. The tariffs were commercial utility-scale projects.
first imposed in 2018 during the Trump admin- The US was further considering allowing
istration. Biden, however, said he will allow Canada and Mexico to export solar products
more cells to enter duty-free, a decision wel- to the US duty-free, said Biden. Mexico quickly
comed at the time by project developers and agreed to talks.it™

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