An organization called American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) has reportedly filed petitions with the US Department of Commerce to investigate Chinese manufacturers that are 'unlawfully' circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese PV products, by trading imports from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam locations.
They demand that duties on Chinese solar products should be extended to circumventing entities, lest the American PV manufacturing industry succumbs to 'monopoly control' putting at risk US President Joe Biden's clean energy manufacturing plans.
A Washington DC law firm Wiley, that claims to be advising A-SMACC on the matter, released a statement from the organization that reads, "For too long, obvious circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese solar products has hobbled the US industry, eviscerated our supply chains, and put our clean energy future at risk."
The association argues that even though Chinese companies now exclusively export to the US from Southeast Asia, a vast majority of them are invested in manufacturing, research and development within China.
According to Wiley, A-SMACC has named several Chinese companies in its petition, including JA Solar, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, LONGi Green Energy, Talesun Technologies, GCL System Integration, and JinkoSolar, among others.
JinkoSolar has recently started construction of its 7 GW wafer manufacturing plant in Vietnam with a view to diversifying its supply chain to outside China, with a view to minimize its vulnerability to US-China tensions over trade and technology (see JinkoSolar Building 7 GW Wafer Plant In Vietnam).
Already Chinese products with Xinjiang sourced polysilicon are barred from entering the US market since the latter believes there is massive human rights abuse happening within Xinjiang and that polysilicon supply chain here indulges in forced labor (see US Government Ban On Xinjiang Produced Solar Products).
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