US solar firms seek retroactive duties on imports from Vietnam, Thailand

A group of US solar panel makers asked the Commerce Department on Thursday to consider imposing duties retroactively on Vietnam and Thailand due to a surge in imports, as those countries face probes for alleged unfair practices in the multi-billion-dollar trade.
 

In May, the Commerce Department started investigations over silicon solar cells and panels made in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. A group of domestic manufacturers alleges the products were sold in the US at excessively low prices and benefited from subsidies from China, home to many manufacturers with factories in the region.
 

The four Southeast Asian countries accounted for nearly 80 per cent of US imports last year in dollar terms, according to US

trade data reviewed by Reuters.
 

US President Joe Biden has pledged to revitalise American manufacturing by providing incentives for domestic production of goods to help fight climate change, including solar panels and electric-vehicle batteries that are mainly made in China. Some in the small US solar-manufacturing sector say the industry is struggling to compete with low-priced imports.
 

As speculation about the trade probes began circulating this year, exports from Vietnam and Thailand surged, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee said in a complaint filed with Commerce, which followed its earlier petition in April to start the trade investigations. The group represents domestic producers including Hanwha Qcells and First Solar.
 

That investigation could lead to high tariffs from as early as July, if US federal officials confirm unfair trading practices in preliminary determinations scheduled in early October, and uphold retroactive duties applicable 90 days before their decisions.

The trade ministries of Vietnam and Thailand did not reply to requests for comment.
 

The new tariffs could be particularly harmful to Vietnam, which risks the highest duties as it is deemed by the United States a non-market economy. That status usually leads to harsher sanctions because domestic pricing is not considered reliable, according to trade experts.
 

Vietnam's estimated gap between domestic and export prices, known as dumping margins, were estimated by the US at over 270 per cent using Indonesia as benchmark, more than three times higher than Thailand's. Larger margins are likely to result in higher tariffs, if approved, experts said.
 

In their latest complaint, the US manufacturers said the volume of solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand rose 39 per cent and 17 per cent respectively in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, as the two countries allegedly increased shipments to the United States ahead of potential duties.
 

Such moves could be considered "critical circumstances," US producers said. Both the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission must find that critical circumstances exist for duties to be imposed retroactively.
 

In dollar terms, sales from Vietnam to the US surged in recent months.
 

US trade data shows that in April, imports rose to a record high of more than $680 million - over half the total for that month - and remained far above monthly averages in May and June. At the same time, exports in dollar terms from Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia have slowed, the data showed.
 

In the first six months of the year, Vietnam supplied the US with solar panels and modules worth $3.3 billion, equal to 45 per cent of all US imports, up from less than 30 per cent last year when full-year Vietnamese exports to the US amounted to $4 billion.

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