Law firm Wiley, on behalf of its client AASMTC, has filed critical circumstances allegations with the US Department of Commerce
It cites data to claim that solar PV imports to the US from Vietnam and Thailand have increased significantly
It demands retroactive duties be imposed on China-based companies operating from these 2 Southeast Asian nations
As the US International Trade Commission (USITC) continues its investigation into companies circumventing paying antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) for solar cells and modules imported from 4 Southeast Asian nations into the US, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee (AASMTC) has demanded slapping duties retroactively.
The alliance, through its law firm Wiley, has filed ‘critical circumstances allegations’ against solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand citing a recent surge of solar imports from these 2 countries.
Critical Circumstances, explained Wiley, occur when the Department of Commerce determines that the imports are rapidly increasing into the US market of a product that’s subject to an AD/CVD investigation. If determined, the government can then impose duties retroactively on merchandise entered up to 90 days before the preliminary investigation.
According to Wiley’s data, between April 2024 when it filed AD/CVD petitions with the USITC and the US Department of Commerce and June 2024, solar imports from Thailand increased 17% and 39% from Vietnam, compared to the January to March 2024 period.
Monthly imports from Vietnam surged to an all-time record high of over 2.5 GW in June 2024, it added. Additionally, between April and June this year, imports from Vietnam averaged close to 2.3 GW/month, compared to less than 1.5 GW/month in the preceding 6 months.
“When we submitted our petitions a few months ago, several China-based companies operating in Thailand and Vietnam appear to have actively accelerated their U.S. solar exports, likely to evade impending duties,” said Co-Chair of Wiley’s International Trade Practice and Lead Council to the petitioners, Tim Brightbill. “We were therefore compelled to file these critical circumstances allegations in response to these new surges of imports.”
However, trade lawyers that the analysts at Roth MKM spoke to, called the Wiley data inaccurate.
“Allegation seems to be based on published trade data (from Dataweb) so might or might not accurately reflect changes in the rate of shipments of subject merchandise,” they told Roth, adding, “And, even if DOC ultimately goes affirmative, the ITC also has to reach an affirmative finding, and the ITC rarely finds critical circumstances. So, this will cause (is already causing) havoc in the industry, but will likely turn out to be a flash in the pan.”
Notably, AASMTC’s petition led to the USITC launching an inquiry into the imports of solar cells and modules into the US from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. It found reasonable indication of material injury to the domestic industry (see US ITC To Continue AD/CVD Investigations Into Solar Imports).
Recently, the Joe Biden administration raised the volume of imported solar cells entering the country duty-free from 5 GW to 12.5 GW on a retroactive basis to help build upstream vertical integration in the PV industry (see US Raises Section 201 Tariff Rate Quota For Imported Solar Cells).
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