SolarWorld AG’s U.S. unit petitioned the Obama administration to impose dumping and subsidy duties on Chinese imports, a month after solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC collapsed.
China uses cash grants, discounts on raw materials, preferential loans, tax incentives and currency manipulation among tactics to boost exports of solar cells, according to SolarWorld’s complaint yesterday with the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission. SolarWorld, a maker of solar modules, wants duties to offset the practices.
“The illegal subsidies that China has put into the solar industry are no different than giving an athlete a bucket full of steroids,” Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc., owned by a Bonn-based company, said yesterday at a Washington news conference. China “is illegally seizing control of the U.S. solar market, manufacturing and our jobs.”
The case is one of the largest targeting China, with political implications as both nations race to develop clean- energy technologies. Solyndra, which received a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee and filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 6, has said it was unable to compete with foreign manufacturers financed by their governments.
The U.S. is stepping up efforts to make China comply with World Trade Organization rules. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Oct. 6 his office sent the WTO a list of almost 200 subsidy programs that China failed to disclose as required by the organization’s rules. The U.S. Senate on Oct. 11 passed a bill aimed at punishing China for keeping its currency undervalued, a measure that Chinese officials said risks damaging trade relations and undermining the global recovery.
Wind-energy complaint
The Obama administration in December filed a case at the WTO in Geneva over China’s support for wind-energy manufacturers, the first by the U.S. regarding green technology, after a complaint from the United Steelworkers union.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. of Jiangsu, China, the world’s largest maker of solar panels, said trade complaints may hinder efforts by producers to challenge traditional forms of electricity generation.
“Protectionism would not only put thousands of jobs at risk, but it would inhibit solar technology’s ability to compete against traditional forms of electricity generation,” Suntech said yesterday in a statement. “A solar trade war would deal a major blow to the global economy and to our common goal of achieving a clean energy future.”
Panel shipments
In the first seven months of this year, China shipped $1.4 billion of solar panels to the U.S., exceeding the $1.2 billion for all of 2010, according to trade commission data. Imports from South Korea, the Philippines and India also jumped.
Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, yesterday sought to add $5 million to a spending bill for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to investigate and combat China’s violations of international trade law.
“China’s gains in the solar market are coming at the expense of Ohio producers,” Brown said in a statement. “Ohio manufacturers can compete with anyone on a level playing field, but by subsidizing its solar industry and hoarding rare earths, China isn’t competing-it’s cheating.”
The collapse of Fremont, California-based Solyndra has renewed demands from U.S. lawmakers and union leaders that the Obama administration pursue unfair-trade complaints against China for subsidies to its clean-energy companies.
China credit
China provided $30 billion in credit to its biggest solar manufacturers last year, about 20 times the U.S. effort, Jonathan Silver, former executive director of the Energy Department’s loan program, told a congressional panel Sept. 14. Silver’s resignation was announced on Oct. 6.
“The environment-friendly green-technology policies introduced by the Chinese government are for the purpose of energy protection and ensuring sustainable development, which are in conformity with WTO rules,” Wang Baodong, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said a year ago. Wang said on Sept. 22 that the debate over subsidies “is not a new issue.”
SolarWorld’s complaint targets production of crystalline solar-cell and panel imports and excludes thin-film products such as those made by Solyndra, said Tim Brightbill, a lawyer at Wiley Rein LLP who is representing SolarWorld. Brightbill said SolarWorld’s complaint is backed by six other solar companies, which he declined to name.
Solar modules
SolarWorld Industries America, based in Hillsboro, Oregon, has been lobbying lawmakers such as Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, to help protect its jobs at a factory in the state. The company, which has 1,100 U.S. employees, said Sept. 2 that it was closing its factory in Camarillo, California.
Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee that deals with trade, said in a statement that he supports the U.S. companies’ actions.
“I am encouraged to hear that the U.S. solar industry is defending itself against China’s massive subsidies and other unfair trade practices,” he said.
