China’s overcapacity distorts global prices and production patterns and hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world … It is important to the President and me that American firms and workers can compete on a level playing field.
In 2023, the price of a solar panel manufactured in China dropped to 15 cents per watt, more than 60% below the price of a U.S.-made panel. These heavily subsidized and artificially low prices put U.S. solar manufacturers at an extreme disadvantage during a critical turning point in the development of the domestic solar manufacturing industry.
The bottom line is China wants to kill the American solar industry. I'll say that again: China wants to kill the American solar industry.
In order to compete on a global scale and advance U.S. energy independence, we must put American manufacturers first and hold Communist China accountable for its use of forced labor and unfair trade practices – period.
There is wide ranging evidence China is targeting the US solar industry. It is an existential threat to an American growth industry and requires a forceful response … Thousands of workers at Ohio hometown companies work day in and day out to expand our domestic solar manufacturing capability. It is time we stand with those workers and fight off China’s unfair trade practices.
American workers and American businesses should be building our clean energy economy, but Chinese companies are working overtime to cheat the rules, our economy, and our workers out of the job.
We’re heartened that Secretary Yellen acknowledged the unlevel playing field from which Chinese-headquartered solar manufacturers are currently benefiting and the fragility inherent in the US’s dependence on China for solar, but it’s time to act. The White House must act aggressively to re-balance the playing field and end the destructive race to the bottom we are currently in with importers.
Yes, trade in clean energy products by all means, but global dependence on one source whose interests differ from our own is not ideal.
... The U.S. should work to loosen China’s chokehold. The domestic clean energy manufacturing incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are a start. The Biden Administration can also re-impose tariffs on Chinese-made solar components routed through Southeast Asian countries.
American solar manufacturers have been rightly sounding the alarm bell about deteriorating market conditions for months now and the need to take corrective actions.
There is great risk that the largest beneficiary of the IRA’s solar energy tax credits may be China.
