U.S. Slaps High Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels

Source: NYT

The United States Commerce Department announced on Thursday the imposition of anti-dumping tariffs of more than 31 percent on solar panels from China, a decision certain to infuriate Chinese officials already upset after recent bilateral frictions over China’s human rights policies and its increasingly confrontational approach towards American allies like the Philippines and Japan.

The anti-dumping decision is one of the largest in American history, covering one of the largest and fastest-growing categories of imports from China, the world’s largest exporter. The department said the United States bought $3.1 billion worth of Chinese solar cells last year, giving China more than half the American market for the devices.

Chinese officials have been indignant at American criticism of their solar power industry, pointing out that the United States has urged China for years to embrace renewable energy as a way to reduce air pollution, combat climate change and limit the need for oil imports from politically volatile countries in the Mideast. Government support for solar energy is an important feature of China’s current Five-Year Plan, which runs through 2015, although Premier Wen Jiabao publicly cautioned in March that he was becoming concerned about overcapacity in the sector.

The Chinese solar panel industry threatened in November that if the United States puts heavy tariffs on Chinese exports, then the Chinese industry would file a trade case at the Chinese commerce ministry against American exports of polysilicon. Produced mainly in Tennessee and Washington state, where hydroelectric dams produce cheap electricity, polysilicon is the main ingredient in solar panels.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/business/energy-environment/us-slaps-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-panels.html?pagewanted=all