Rising tariffs on Chinese solar products could slow U.S. installations
Tan Youru, Solar Analyst, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
In fact, raising tariffs under Section 301 alone may have a limited impact on U.S. solar installations and Chinese solar manufacturers. Since 2012, the U.S. has already imposed high anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on Chinese solar cells and modules, which has led Chinese companies to shift their supply chains for the U.S. market to Southeast Asia. In recent years, the volume of solar cells and modules exported directly from China to the U.S. has become negligible.
With the reimposition of anti-circumvention tariffs in June and the potential for new tariffs on Southeast Asian countries (following the second AD/CVD investigation), the cost of importing solar modules into the U.S. is expected to increase significantly.
While these policies favor domestic U.S. manufacturers, they would also raise the price of solar modules, thereby hurting solar power plant developers and increasing the cost of building solar projects. As a result, this may slow down the pace of solar installations in the country.
