Georgia Solar Company Looking For Pricing Quotas On All U.S. Solar Imports

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - 2:35pm

The United States has filed a petition with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that could allow it to slap emergency tariffs on imported solar products.

The investigation is on behalf of Georgia-based Suniva Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in mid-April and alleges in the petition that an increase in imports of solar products by U.S. companies is taking market share from U.S. producers, despite overall growth in the U.S. market.

If the investigation finds in favor of the Georgia company, the United States has the option to impose safeguard actions that could be adding import taxes or setting import quotas that will apply to all U.S. solar companies.

Suniva's petition asks for a specific minimum price to be set on all imported solar panels and cells, which equates to about double the market price. The Georgia company’s petition says 1,200 U.S. jobs had been lost and wages had been reduced by 27 percent between 2012 and 2016. The Solar Energy Industries Association has come out against the proposed pricing.

The latest report from the International Energy Agency says solar energy now provides 1.8 percent of worldwide electricity demand, up from 1.2 percent in 2015 and virtually zero a decade ago. And Arizona ranks third in the cumulative amount of solar capacity installed through last year, after California and North Carolina, according to the 2017 Solar Energy Industries Association research report.

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