The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has officially released its findings from today’s affirmative vote that foreign solar cell and panel imports have caused injury to U.S. manufacturing. Significant in the release is that Canadian, Australian, South American and Singaporean imports were found to not cause injury, while Mexican and Korean imports are included in the injury case.
The U.S. International Trade Commission today determined that increased imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article.
The determination was made in the context of an investigation initiated on May 17, 2017, under section 202 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2252) in response to a petition filed by Suniva, Inc., and supported by SolarWorld Americas, Inc. Information about this investigation and global safeguard investigations in general can be found
The Commission’s determination resulted from a 4-0 vote. Chairman Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman David S. Johanson, and Commissioners Irving A. Williamson and Meredith M. Broadbent made affirmative determinations.
As a result of today’s vote, the Commission will proceed to the remedy phase of the investigation. The Commission will hold a public hearing on remedy on October 3, 2017. The Commission will submit its report containing its injury determination, remedy recommendations, certain additional findings, and the basis for them to the President by November 13, 2017.
When the Commission makes an affirmative injury determination in a global safeguard investigation, it is required to make certain additional findings under the implementing statutes for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (Canada and Mexico), the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic), the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, the Agreement between the United States of America and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area, the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement, and the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
With respect to imports from the NAFTA countries, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Mexico account for a substantial share of total imports and contribute importantly to the serious injury caused by imports. Vice Chairman Johanson and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent made a negative finding with respect to imports from Canada. Chairman Schmidtlein found such imports from Canada account for a substantial share of total imports and contribute importantly to the serious injury caused by imports.
With respect to imports from Korea, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Korea are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof.
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With respect to other FTA countries, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Australia, CAFTA-DR countries, Colombia, Jordan, Panama, Peru, and Singapore individually are not a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof.
These findings will be forwarded to the President as part of the Commission’s report.
The President, not the Commission, will make the final decision concerning whether to provide relief to the U.S. industry and the kind of relief to provide, including with respect to imports from FTA countries.
A public report concerning the investigation will be available after the Commission submits its findings and recommendations to the President.
