Recently, according to the New York Times Chinese version, Trump's first international trade war may be in the field of solar panels, with major manufacturers in the United States and China, as well as numerous businesses buying and using solar panels, In preparation for the conflict in January next year.
Top U.S. government officials have long hinted that they intend to adopt a tougher trade stance on China, and most of the solar panels are made in China. This is the background of the dispute.
Whether Trump's tough rhetoric about China can bring about major changes in trade measures and whether those moves will help rehabilitate U.S. businesses may be the first to be tested by the solar panel industry.
At present, China's solar panel production accounts for more than two thirds of the world's output, but 10 years ago, they accounted for insignificant proportions.In the face of fierce competition in the past six years, the United States has more than 10 solar The battery company shut down its own factory.
In the past 10 years, China's efforts to become a major producer of solar panels, the global price down nearly 90%, to help the international community to curb global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, even in the United States, which will soon The arrival of the solar-powered trade camp has become blurred and U.S. manufacturers are preparing to confront solar panel installers and users in the United States.
Chinese officials claim they are helping the world to use cleaner energy, but U.S. manufacturers say unfair subsidies for cheap solar panels are being harmed by the Chinese government, which has benefited from low-interest loans from government-run banks. Even those Chinese companies that are in a loss and can not repay their loans can continue to survive.
Mark Widmar, chief executive of FirstSolar, a maker of large-scale solar panels in Phoenix, said that Chinese manufacturers like these "actually went bankrupt but still get funding."
For the past five years, the United States has imposed tariffs on solar panels from China, prompting Chinese manufacturers to set up factories in Southeast Asia, and now the Trump administration said it may step up resistance to import all solar panels Product tariffs, including products in Southeast Asia.
So far, government officials have allowed two solar-cell companies that have factories in the United States to demand that Washington impose tariffs on all solar-panel imports.
Due to a series of complicated steps the United States has made in assessing trade cases, the Trump administration now has a deadline to decide by January 26, 2018 whether to approve requests for tariffs on a broader scale.
China opposes the move, which it believes will hurt the buyers of solar panels, and China's panel makers account for about four-fifths of global sales if China's factories in Southeast Asia are also counted.
Developers of solar panel installers, utilities solar power generation projects, and other companies involved in the industry are also opposed to imposing tariffs on a much broader scale.
However, there is also debate about the impact of tariffs on the industry, with US solar panel makers saying higher tariffs will only slightly increase project costs. "Solar panels are still attractive to any utility Weidarma, First Solar, said.
Many trade experts predict that the United States will impose tariffs on all imports of solar panels because Trump once sympathized with U.S. industrial workers and fossil fuels and expressed doubts about the use of renewable energy.
If the Trump administration decides to impose a wider tariff next month, that may be the first step in a chain crackdown on China's trade and is more likely to lead the Chinese government to retaliate against U.S. exports.
Li Junfeng, China's economic advisor and China's renewable energy policy planner, believes that China is willing to allow market forces to determine the market for solar panels, not the United States. Ten years ago, China had 800 solar panel companies, and now Only 70-80, others are bankrupt, but China's solar panel production has more than quadrupled over the past decade, he said because the Chinese government allows market forces to screen the industry, leaving only The most efficient competitor.
In sharp contrast, Solyndra, the state solar energy equipment company in California, went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving a US $ 535 million secured loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. As a result, the U.S. political support for the industry began to shrink.
'You are too worried about Solyndra; both are very small companies. Why do you worry so much?' Li Junfeng said, 'Then you hurt all the users.'
