The U.S. Department of Commerce proposes a new round of anti-double and anti-tariff measures
The latest news is that the U.S. Department of Commerce is considering imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on aluminum profiles imported from 15 countries, including China, Mexico, Turkey, India, Italy, and South Korea. The U.S. Department of Commerce is expected to announce the preliminary results of the countervailing investigation around December 28.
Later this month, this new series of anti-dumping and countervailing duties may affect more areas of solar manufacturing.
The organizations applying for anti-dumping/countervailing investigations on aluminum profiles include the American Aluminum Profile Alliance and the "International Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industries and Service Workers Alliance", the latter is a group of 14 aluminum profiles An alliance of producers.
Anti-dumping/countervailing taxes are taxes and fees levied on imported goods whose value is lower than the domestic market value or production cost. This essentially depresses the prices of US manufacturers and causes economic losses to enterprises in related industries.
In the solar manufacturing industry, aluminum is used in many fixed mounting equipment and solar module frames. The United States once produced most of the world's aluminum, but in recent decades domestic manufacturing has relied on aluminum imports.
Law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field responded to the anti-dumping/countervailing investigation on behalf of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), fearing that the investigation alone would hurt related manufacturing industries.
"There are measures in the Inflation Reduction Act to encourage domestic purchasing if these products can be purchased domestically, but we understand that domestic producers cannot supply these products. Therefore, imposing tariffs on these products is unnecessary and would have Adverse effects on U.S. clean energy production.
That runs counter to the goals of the Inflation Reduction Act championed by the Biden administration, which encourages unprecedented investment in solar power across the country. These investigations could impose tariffs on products critical to solar infrastructure, hindering achieving these important goals. "
In the document, SEIA also asked whether "finished solar modules" with aluminum frames would be subject to the proposed import duties. The U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed anti-dumping/countervailing duties on Chinese-made solar modules since 2012 and recently extended these duties to solar cells and modules made in Southeast Asia, specifically Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
According to a press release issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce is expected to announce the preliminary results of the countervailing investigation on or about December 28, and the results of the anti-dumping duty investigation on or about March 12, 2024. The U.S. International Trade Commission will release a report on these investigations on December 26.