Senior Biden admin. officials described the move to suspend the tariffs as creating a “bridge” — temporarily allowing cheap foreign solar panels to flood into the U.S. to speed the transition to clean energy.
Biden’s move Monday to prohibit new tariffs on the solar panels also took the teeth out of an investigation by the Commerce Department that was required by law. The Biden administration had previously tried to avoid interference in what’s supposed to be an independent, quasi-judicial process.
More than 80 percent of panels shipped in the U.S. are imported from overseas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, including huge amounts from Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. The products, allegedly still subsidized by the Chinese government, then get “dumped” onto the U.S. market at prices far below what they cost U.S. solar panel makers to build them.
Biden’s move Monday effectively takes the issue off the table for two years by ensuring no new solar tariffs on the Southeast Asian countries regardless of what the investigation determines. Assistant Commerce Secretary Lisa Wang said that if the investigation finds new tariffs are in order, they’d kick in after the two-year period.
Raimondo responded to the announcement by calling imported solar panels “an important component to addressing the immediate demands of bringing additional energy sources online.”
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