(Image credit: Getty Images Europe via @daylife)
The solar trade war heated up Thursday when China’s Commerce Ministry published a preliminary finding that state renewable energy polices in the U.S. violate free-trade regulations.
The finding, published on the Commerce Ministry’s website and reported by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, did not identify specific policies, projects or states that allegedly violated free-trade rules.
China’s move follows the U.S. Department of Commerce’s preliminary ruling on May 17 that hit Chinese solar manufacturers with steep tariffs, finding they illegally dumped cheap photovoltaic cells on the American market. The unfair trade complaint was brought by the U.S. subsidiary of Germany’s SolarWorld with the support of other companies, four of which refuse to be identified. A final decision on the complaint is due Nov. 23.
The dispute has divided the U.S. solar industry, with some solar manufacturers squaring off against installers who have benefited from a steep plunge in the price of photovoltaic cells and modules over the past three years.
That has alarmed the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group that has tried to walk the line between its warring constituencies.
“The escalating trade conflict in the global solar industry will ultimately hurt the entire market at a time when solar energy is on the cusp of widespread adoption,” Rhone Resch, chief executive of the trade group, said in a statement Thursday. “We, therefore, repeat our call for the U.S. and Chinese governments to immediately work together towards a mutually-satisfactory resolution of the growing trade conflict within the solar industry.”
That did not sit well with Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld's U.S. operations.
“As a SEIA member, I’m extremely disappointed that SEIA would call for a premature settlement of our trade dispute,” he said in a statement. “We do not need talks and we do not need deals. We need the Chinese government and industry to obey requirements of U.S. and world trade law.”
