USCIT Ruling Permits Implementation Of Trump Administration's Bifacial Solar Tariffs

In a slip opinion issued on November 19, 2020, the United States Court of International Trade ("USCIT") permitted the imposition of tariffs on bifacial solar panels, a victory for the Trump administration's years-long effort to limit imports of foreign-made solar technologies.

The decision is a culmination of a series of legal battles stemming from the International Trade Commission's ("ITC") 2017 inquiry into the United States' importation of solar products. The ITC was petitioned by Suniva Inc. and SolarWorld Americas, Inc., two US-based manufacturers of solar panels that had experienced significant financial distress due to foreign competition. Suniva and SolarWorld requested that the ITC commence an investigation under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, a rarely used legal mechanism that, upon petition, allows the ITC to determine whether increased imports of a given product poses a "substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic