Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Rob Portman (R-OH) sent a letter to President Biden expressing their concern over the president’s decision to impose a two-year tariff moratorium on imported solar panels. The senators argue this decision increases our dependence on China, rewards unfair trade practices, harms U.S. workers, and represents an executive branch overreach. The president’s decision also undermines an ongoing investigation by the Department of Commerce into efforts by Chinese solar companies to circumvent our Antidumping and Countervailing Duty (AD/CVD) orders against Chinese-made solar cells and modules by moving manufacturing to countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
“Already the United States is over-reliant on China for solar power. Currently, 80 percent of our solar panels come from China or Chinese companies, and this reliance is not market-based. China has used a variety of anti-free market practices, such as industrial subsidies, to come to dominate the solar sector. This is why the United States imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders on unfairly traded solar panel imports from China as early as 2012. It is also why the Department of Commerce is actively investigating circumvention of those AD/CVD orders by solar panel producers and exporters in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The unprecedented and sweeping tariff moratorium prioritizes foreign solar panels over those made in the United States. We cannot afford to trade dependence on Russian energy for that of Chinese solar panels. It is counter to the national interest to rely on our adversaries for our energy needs,” wrote the senators.
“…we are disappointed that the climate change agenda has proven to be an effective means to pre-empt and nullify the legitimate claims of U.S. workers and industry before they can be fully considered through the ongoing investigation by your Department of Commerce. To honor those claims, we urge you to end the self-imposed emergency declaration and let the Commerce Department investigation proceed unimpeded so as not to further increase our economic reliance on China,” continued the senators.
Joining Senators Cramer and Portman are Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Click here to read the letter.