Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 36 2021

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

WTO rejects China’s “baseless”

challenge to US solar panel tariffs

JAPAN THE World Trade Organisation (WTO) has suppliers flooded the US solar market with
rejected all four of China’s challenges to US solar panels at the end of 2017 as customers sought
tariffs brought into effect in January 2018. to avoid paying a 30% import tariff, noted the
The rejection of the ‘safeguard measure’ on South China Morning Post.
imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) The US safeguard imposes a tariff-rate quota
products was by a WTO dispute settlement on imports of cells and tariff on modules over a
panel. The decision can be appealed against four-year period currently set to expire on Feb-
within 60 days. ruary 6, 2022. The 30% tariff has been ramped
“I welcome the WTO panel’s findings reject- down annually. It is now 18%, having been
ing China’s challenges to the US solar safeguard upped again by then President Donald Trump.
as baseless,” said US Trade Representative Kath- Four domestic producers have asked the
erine Tai. USITC to review a safeguard extension, which
“The Biden-Harris administration is com- is not supported by all solar energy stakehold-
mitted to ensuring America’s role in resilient ers in the US because they say it increases the
clean energy supply chains as part of the Build price of solar panels and kills jobs. That review
Back Better agenda,” she continued. “We must is ongoing.
make historic infrastructure investments that In July 2019, China requested the estab-
unlock the full potential of solar power and cre- lishment of a WTO panel alleging that the US
ate good-paying jobs in cutting-edge fields that imposition of the safeguard was inconsistent
will help address the climate crisis.” with various obligations under GATT 1994 and
Beijing has not commented. the WTO Agreement on Safeguards. The panel
The news is important because this is the first rejected all of China’s claims.
successful defence of a general safeguard action Specifically, the panel found that the United
before a three-person dispute panel of the Gene- States established that solar imports had risen
va-based WTO. China is the predominant man- as a result of unforeseen developments, estab-
ufacturer of solar panels and cells globally. lished a causal link between increased imports
Beijing had unsuccessfully argued the US and serious injury to the domestic industry, and
acted inconsistently with some of the articles appropriately considered other factors besides
in the WTO’s general agreement on tariffs and higher imports that were allegedly causing injury
trade (GATT). China said, for example, that the to the domestic industry, said the US Trade Rep-
US had not proved a causal link between Chi- resentative’s Office.
nese imports and the harm to US producers. In early August, two small US solar manufac-
Under Biden’s Build Back Better programme, turers petitioned the US government to extend
which is being debated in large part in the rec- the tariffs, which do mostly affect Chinese
onciliation bill in Congress, tax credits for util- companies. Auxin Solar and Suniva have told
ity-scale solar installations would be extended. the USITC that the four-year tariffs should be
Generally, Biden is seeking to have net-zero extended so that America can be independent
emissions from the electricity grid by 2035, in terms of solar power.
which effectively means relying upon solar, “The need for extending the safeguard and
wind, hydro and nuclear power. allowing these new green energy policies and
The Section 201 solar safeguard measure initiatives to take hold is necessary to secure
was instituted under President Donald Trump America’s solar energy independence,” said
because of import competition by Chinese pro- the Section 201 petition, filed with the ITC on
ducers that was harming the US solar industry. August 2. They will also “rid the solar supply
The safeguard was established after the US chain of injurious and unfair trade practices”
International Trade Commission (USITC) that harm US-based solar employees, it says.
found that the domestic US solar industry was “It’s a national security concern,” Mamun
being seriously hurt by increased imports. The Rashid, CEO of Auxin, told the Wall Street Jour-
suit at the ITC, which tends to favour domes- nal at the time.
tic producers, was brought in April 2017 by a Shortly afterwards, a similar petition was
bankrupt US solar cell producer who argued filed by Hanwha Q CELLS USA, LG Electronics
that cheap Asian imports had pushed it out of USA and Mission Solar Energy of Texas argu-
business. ing that the end of the safeguard measures could
Indeed, Bloomberg data showed that Chinese make the US wholly dependent on imports.™

Week 36 08•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11