Canary Media reports on U.S. solar panel makers' petition to the Commerce Department for new tariffs on panels imported from Southeast Asia, quoting Advanced Energy United and other clean energy groups on market volatility the petition would trigger.
First Solar and Qcells, the two largest solar-panel manufacturers in the U.S., have joined a coalition of domestic suppliers calling for new tariffs on below-cost and state-subsidized panels imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The coalition, calling itself the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, is filing petitions today with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The cases are intended to spur an investigation into the trade practices of manufacturers in those four countries and the extent to which they are harming the U.S. solar industry.