WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded a bipartisan letter led by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urging her to accept the anti-circumvention petition filed by Auxin Solar, Inc., a U.S. headquartered company that manufactures solely in America, requesting that the U.S. Department of Commerce close a loophole that is being exploited by Chinese companies operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia to circumvent existing antidumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) duty orders on solar cells and modules from China.
CPA strongly supports the Biden administration initiating a circumvention investigation. These investigations are historically routine and based on long-standing U.S. law. Recently, they have become commonplace, especially on AD/CVD orders involving imports from China with the Department of Commerce self-initiating an inquiry last week concerning quartz surface products that are assembled in Malaysia using Chinese inputs.
“Auxin’s petition provides clear, strong evidence that Chinese solar companies are circumventing AD/CVD duties that were lawfully imposed on Chinese solar cells and modules,” said CPA Chairman Zach Mottl. “The Department of Commerce should follow U.S. law and initiate an investigation without further delay. Robust enforcement of U.S. trade law, including strong enforcement of these AD/CVD orders, is necessary, otherwise American manufacturers have no protection from China’s unlawful, predatory trade practices.”
Chinese solar companies, like Jinko Solar, and Washington special interest groups funded by them, are lobbying the Biden administration and Congress to prevent the Department of Commerce from investigating alleged circumvention of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on solar imports. Last year, five Chinese solar companies—LONGi Green Energy, JinkoSolar, Trina Solar, JA Solar and Risen Energy—issued a statement in a blatant attempt to undermine the Biden administration’s trade enforcement actions and scare the U.S. solar industry into manufacturing a crisis.
Four of these Chinese solar companies were named in an explosive academic report that was released by the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region detailing the widespread use of Uyghur forced labor within the solar industry. The report found that the four largest solar panel suppliers in the world—JinkoSolar, JASolar, TrinaSolar and LONGi—all source from at least one polysilicon manufacturer that is implicated in Uyghur forced labor either through direct participation in forced labor schemes, and/or through their raw material sourcing.
Jinko Solar sits on the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
“It is time for Washington—including the Biden administration—to recognize the lobbying efforts done on behalf of Chinese solar companies,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. “Special interests groups like SEIA have consistently sided against U.S. solar manufacturers and workers, choosing instead to advocate on behalf of Chinese manufacturers that use forced labor in their supply chain and produce polysilicon from dirty, coal-fired power plants. It is time for the Biden administration to decide whether it will be responsible for creating clean energy jobs here in America, or in Chinese-controlled factories.”
