China’s ‘baseless’ challenge to US solar panel tariffs rejected by WTO
- Then-president Donald Trump announced four years of import caps and tariffs in January 2018
- But China did not establish the safeguards were inconsistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules
A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel rejected all four of China’s claims against the United States relating to safeguard measures that the Trump administration imposed on solar panels imported from Chinese manufacturers.
China did not establish that Washington’s safeguards against imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells are inconsistent with the WTO’s rules on the measures, the Geneva-based body said in a report published on Thursday.
Then-president Donald Trump announced four years of import caps and tariffs on panels after a certain amount is imported – so-called tariff-rate quotas – in January 2018.
That was in response to a trade suit filed in April 2017 by a bankrupt US solar manufacturer that argued it had been harmed by a wave of cheap imports, mostly from Asia. The US International Trade Commission agreed in October that year, paving the way for Trump’s decision.
On Twitter, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she welcomed the WTO rejecting “China’s baseless challenges to the US solar safeguard”.
Bloomberg data showed that Chinese suppliers flooded the US solar market with panels at the end of 2017 as customers sought to avoid paying a 30 per cent import tariff.