With drastic additional tariffs, the US Ministry of Trade wants to react to the subsidies for Southeast Asian solar companies. Surveys of up to 3,521 percent are planned.
The US government has announced additional tariffs of up to 3,521 percent on solar panels from Southeast Asia. Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are affected, explained the International Commercial Authority (ITA), which is subordinate to the US Ministry of Trade.
The Ministry of Commerce had determined that the solar cells from these countries were brought to the US market at dumping prices, the ITA said. The solar companies there had received subsidies from the Chinese government and had shown an investigation of the Commission for International Trade (ITC) that had already started last April.
Decision by early June
The US ITC is another federal authority that advises the government and conducts investigations into trade questions. The ITC should now determine the consequences of these subsidies for the US manufacturers by June 2 and which tariffs will be due in the future.
The ITA plans a custom of 34.41 percent on Solar Panele from Malaysia. An average of 651.85 percent should be due for solar panels from Cambodia. For the products of two companies from Cambodia, Hunen Solar and Solar Long PV-Tech, the sentence should even be 3,521 percent-i.e. 35 times the sales price.
The targeted tariffs came to almost all imports on almost all imports that had been in force since April 2. In addition, the “reciprocal” tariffs exposed by US President Donald Trump would come for the time being.
Subsidiary Chinese corporations
According to Chinese information, the Panele 2023 imported by the USA in 2023 had a value of almost twelve billion dollars. The investigation of the US ITC was started in April 2024 after complaints from US manufacturers. At that time, their association said that the solar companies in the four Southeast Asian countries were subsidiaries of Chinese corporations who received subsidies from the Chinese government.
