Commerce Concludes Controversial Investigation Into Solar Panels From China

On August 18, the U.S. Department of Commerce concluded an investigation it launched early last year on solar cells and modules from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Commerce provided its conclusions in a Federal Register notice, highlighting that five specific Chinese companies are shipping Chinese-origin solar products to certain Southeast Asian countries for minor processing in an attempt to circumvent U.S. Antidumping/Countervailing (AD/CVD) duties on such products However, duties on these imports will not be collected or assessed until June 2024, when a waiver enacted by the Biden administration is set to expire.

Commerce's investigation began in March 2022 in response to a complaint filed by Auxin Solar, a U.S. manufacturer which alleged that Chinese manufacturers were evading U.S. tariffs on such products from China by routing manufacturing through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Nearly three-quarters of solar modules imported into the U.S.