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Chinese imports hurt U.S. solar companies, trade panel says

Source:?December ?03, ?2011 | Bloomberg Release Date:2011-12-07 468
Plastics & Rubber
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By William McQuillen and Zachary Tracer

The U.S. International Trade Commission took the first step toward imposing added tariffs on Chinese solar imports, saying subsidies for the products harm equipment makers such as SolarWorld AG.

The trade panel voted unanimously in Washington yesterday in a preliminary ruling on the petition by Bonn-based SolarWorld calling for antidumping and countervailing duties. The commission will now proceed with a full investigation.

“It’s an incremental step, but it is a major step forward,” Gordon Brinser, the president of SolarWorld’s U.S. unit, said in a Dec. 1 interview anticipating the vote. “The ITC is saying there’s harm or a threat of injury.”

The Chinese government uses cash grants, raw-materials discounts, preferential loans, tax incentives and currency manipulation to boost exports of solar cells, according to SolarWorld’s Oct. 19 complaint to the trade commission and the U.S. Commerce Department. SolarWorld, a maker of solar modules, is seeking duties to offset the practices.

The ITC is examining possible economic harm to SolarWorld from Chinese imports, while the department determines the penalty for Chinese companies that illegally dump products. The department may decide on preliminary remedies as early as January 12.

Tariffs may raise the cost of modules by 10 percent, Aaron Chew, a senior analyst at New York-based Maxim Group LLC, said in a research note yesterday.

Module Costs

SolarWorld and six other companies that haven’t been publicly identified, have requested tariffs of 100 percent, saying Chinese solar manufacturers benefit from unfair government support.

The U.S. group asked the federal government to slap duties on more than $1 billion of Chinese imports.

Democratic lawmakers Nike

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