____________________________________The United Commerce Department will finalize
a decision on Friday to impose import duties on solar panel manufacturers who made their
products in Southeast Asian nations in a bid to avoid tariffs on Chinese-made goods. The
Commerce probe found that units of Chinese companies BYD, Trina Solar, Longi Green
Energy and Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) were dodging U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar
panels by finishing their products in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam before shipping
them to the U.S. market. The U.S. has had anti-dumping duties for a decade now on Chinesemade solar products after the government determined that Chinese companies were receiving
unfair government subsidies that made it hard for U.S. panel manufacturers to compete.
The tariffs will hurt buyers of solar panels that rely on cheap products from China and
Asia to make their projects competitive. However, the tariffs are bound to be music in
the ears of the small U.S. solar manufacturing industry, which has long struggled to
compete with Chinese goods.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government is currently scrutinizing Chinese electric-vehicle
battery and car parts supply chains for possible links to forced labor. Under the newly
enacted Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the U.S. has banned the
importation of goods made in Xinjiang, China, where the U.S. believes Chinese
authorities have set up labor camps for Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups. This
could signal difficult times ahead for EV makers, who might be required to provide solid
proof that their supply chains are free of any form of forced labor.