US slaps tariffs on imports of S-E Asian solar panels

US trade officials announced on Nov. 29 a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian nations after American manufacturers complained that companies there are flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.

It is the second of two preliminary decisions that President Joe Biden's Commerce Department is making in 2024 in a trade case brought by South Korea's Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing.

The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand of causing global prices to collapse by dumping products into the market.