On Tuesday, May 12th, eight American solar product manufacturers submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce, requesting an investigation into whether the import of solar panels from Ethiopia is circumventing the anti-dumping duties imposed by the U.S. on Chinese components.
According to a report by “Nikkei Asia,” the petition states that these components are essentially manufactured in China, undergo minimal processing at two companies in East Africa, and are then exported to the U.S. via Ethiopia as a transit point to evade U.S. anti-dumping duties.
The report highlights that solar panels and components originating in China face a 50% tariff when entering the U.S. Currently, Chinese solar product component manufacturers exporting to the U.S. through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties of up to 3521% imposed by the U.S. government.
Over the past decade, the U.S. has imposed various tariffs on foreign solar product manufacturers engaged in low-priced dumping and benefiting from government subsidies.
Tim Brightbill, a partner and co-chairman at Wiley Rein law firm, pointed out that foreign manufacturers benefiting from national subsidies have, for over a decade, addressed U.S. tariffs by transferring minimal processing operations to a third country not sanctioned by the U.S., which in this case is Ethiopia.
The petition accuses Toyo Ethiopia and Origin Solar Manufacturing in Ethiopia of assembling batteries and battery modules, urging the Commerce Department to conduct a nationwide investigation into all solar imports from Ethiopia within 30 days.
The websites of the two companies indicate that Toyo Ethiopia commenced production at a 4-gigawatt factory in Ethiopia in April last year, while Origin Solar operates a 4.2-gigawatt solar panel factory in the same Hawassa Industrial Park.
The companies that submitted the petition are DYCM Power, First Solar, Great Lakes Solex PR, Hanwha Qcells, Silfab Solar, Suniva, Swift Solar, and Talon PV. These eight companies allege that the U.S. government imposed tariffs on Southeast Asian countries last June, leading to a surge in the amount of solar cells and components imported from Ethiopia to the U.S. from zero in the previous month to $300 million by the end of the year.
If the Commerce Department investigates and finds that these companies are evading U.S. tariffs, these products may be subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duties. In April this year, following petitions from the U.S. Solar Manufacturing Alliance and the Trade Commission, the Commerce Department began imposing preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 123% on solar cells and components imported from India, Indonesia, and Laos.