This past week saw two significant developments in the AD/CVD petition filed by the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee. Both point to the fact that tariff rates are likely to rise for Chinese-headquartered companies as the U.S. Department of Commerce continues with its investigations into the alleged illegal subsidies and dumping from the Chinese government.
On October 28, the Commerce Department initiated new subsidy allegations concerning subsidized silver paste and solar glass in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. This means that Commerce will fully investigate the allegations, which could increase the countervailing duty rates on solar producers in the four countries.
On November 1, the Commerce Department accepted the ministerial error correction in the Malaysia CVD investigation which led to a significant increase in Jinko’s preliminary margin. The rates changed as follows:
– From 3.47 percent to 9.92 percent for Jinko Solar;
– From 123.94 percent to 124.78 percent for the non-responsive companies; and,
– From 9.13 percent to 12.32 percent for all others.