The tail-end of the Trump-era Sec. 201 tariffs on imported photo voltaic panels was chaotic for everybody. Initially enacted in 2018, 30% tariffs had been positioned on crystalline silicon cells and modules being imported into the USA. Imported bifacial panels had been excluded from the tariffs in June 2019 as a consequence of there being no vital home manufacturing capability of the specialty product. Then the U.S. Commerce Consultant eliminated their exclusion in October 2019. The U.S. Court docket of Worldwide Commerce (CIT) put bifacial panels again on the exemption record in December 2019.
The U.S. Commerce Consultant got here again in April 2020 and made bifacial modules taxed once more. One month later, CIT mentioned the panels might enter tariff-free. Then President Trump stepped in and eliminated bifacial’s exemption once more in October 2020 by way of an govt order. Lastly(ish), CIT reinstated bifacial’s exemption in November 2021 after figuring out the president’s govt order was illegal. President Biden in February 2022 prolonged the Part 201 tariffs for 4 extra years and saved bifacial panels exempt. Imported bifacial photo voltaic panels to the USA proceed to be untariffed as we speak.
A good timeline of the tariffs on bifacial photo voltaic panels. Credit score: Photo voltaic Energy World
4 international photo voltaic panel producers — Astronergy, Qcells, JA Photo voltaic and Trina Photo voltaic — filed 4 separate instances within the U.S. CIT this month looking for refunds on the “tens of millions of {dollars}’ price” of tariffs they paid on bifacial modules throughout that complicated interval when the specialty panels misplaced their exemption beneath President Trump’s govt order.
Bifacial photo voltaic panels. Credit score: Billy Ludt/Photo voltaic Energy World
The businesses are demanding the refunds as they had been “required to pay these safeguard duties which had been subsequently decided to be illegal.”
“The imposition of safeguard duties is a rare act. Congress created a statutory scheme that’s meant to steadiness the pursuits of all affected events, and the procedures that Congress created for imposing and modifying safeguard measures had been meant to be adopted,” JA Photo voltaic mentioned in its submitting. “The President can’t ignore them or rewrite them himself with the intention to obtain his desired coverage outcomes.”
Trina Photo voltaic is requesting that U.S. Customs and Border Safety “promptly refund, with curiosity, all elevated safeguard duties collected” from Trina on bifacial modules between October 2020 and November 2021, and the elevated tariff quantity on all photo voltaic panels Trump included in his govt order. Astronergy submitted comparable language. Qcells and JA Photo voltaic didn’t particularly reference dates however did request tariffs paid be refunded with curiosity.
The businesses had two years from the primary illegal tariff issuance to pursue motion and filed throughout the respective timeline. Photo voltaic Energy World will proceed to observe this concern.
