Trump's PV Deal comes.
Local time on the United States January 23, a presidential announcement on trade protection measures for solar modules, by raising the import tariffs on PV to protect the United States native PV module manufacturers, the United States PV import tariffs will be increased to 30%, with the passage of time Passing down gradually.
This increase of import tariffs on PV modules means that the U.S. government will adopt a small amount of trade protection measures in 2018 to ensure that Trump's "U.S. # 1" diplomatic and foreign trade policies can be concretely implemented.
However, there are no real beneficiaries of Bloomberg New Energy Finance evaluation and protection measures. Additional taxation will reduce the installed solar market in the United States and its attractiveness to the U.S. domestic manufacturing investment is also limited.
Trina Solar, a Chinese PV company, believes that the United States' 201 investigation of imported PV products and its imposition of stringent taxation measures is an abuse of trade remedies and further worsens the global trade environment of related products.
Raise tariffs or trigger a trade war?
It is reported that the United States to increase tariffs on PV imports directly because the two U.S. solar PV manufacturers are about to close down Suniva Inc. and SolarWorld Americans Inc. to the United States International Trade Commission complained that their current situation in line with the United States promulgated in 1974, The rule - that if a U.S. company can prove it has suffered "serious damage" from a sudden surge in imported products overseas, companies can seek relief from the government to reduce the impact of imported products, commonly referred to as the '201 Survey' in the industry.
The Safeguard Act came into effect most recently in 2002 when U.S. President George W. Bush used the Safeguards Act to protect US domestic steelmakers from the impact of imported cheap steel but George W. Bush used the Safeguard Act to protect the U.S. steel industry, The World Trade Organization (WTO) found violating the WTO rules, the "Security Act" was forced to withdraw.
China is the main supplier of PV modules and its output accounts for more than 60% of the world's total. To raise tariffs on PV products, PV enterprises in China will bear the brunt.
Bloomberg New Energy Financial analysis, the tariff of 30% for photovoltaic cells and modules, the United States will raise the price of components in the United States in 2018 by 10 cents / watt, the average selling price rose to 42 cents / watt .To raise the tariff expectations, the United States The industry has hoard goods in advance, or continue to use the film within the scope of the tariff of PV modules.
The United States to increase import tariffs on PV modules, many media think Trump new foreign trade policy one of the beginning.Future other industries in the United States may be based on 'Security Act' regulations to further increase the import tariffs.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, an official from the White House said that the Chinese government has harmed other countries in the United States by vigorously supporting China's photovoltaic industry and the U.S. government needs to understand how to deal with China's competition in the photovoltaic industry.
However, for the competitiveness of China's PV cells and modules, it is generally recognized as a manifestation of the competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry in China. Through sustained technological innovation, China has realized the cost reduction and is a good thing for the global clean energy alternative. In the past, facing the challenges faced by Europe and the United States 'Double-reverse' investigation, mostly through negotiation.
What are the benefits to the United States?
The United States to increase import tariffs on PV modules, PV cells and components manufacturers in China by the impact.
The prevailing view in China is that the price advantage of PV enterprises in China mainly relies on the cost advantages brought by continuous technological innovation. With the active promotion of Chinese enterprises, parity photovoltaic (PV) network has been realized in some areas and PV applications have already broken through the traditional subsidy market , Including the Middle East, Latin America and other non-subsidized emerging markets have risen in recent years, the global PV development is the trend of the times.
According to statistics of China Customs, China exported US $ 1.376 billion worth of PV modules to China in 2016, ranking third in China for overseas PV modules. The United States started to substantially increase its import tariffs on PV modules in China in 2017. In the first half of this year, China sold PV modules to the United States It fell sharply.
In the meantime, in recent years, Chinese PV enterprises have gradually got rid of their dependence on the European and American markets by vigorously developing the PV market in emerging countries of Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, the export market of PV modules in the first half of 2017 has been gradually changed from European countries, The trend of mature markets such as Japan moving to emerging markets is clear, including Brazil, Pakistani Pakistani Tanzania, Mexico and other countries.
Trina Solar claims that the implementation of this high tax rate by the U.S. government will inevitably lead to an increase in the price of solar photovoltaic products in the United States market and will have a serious impact on the investment and project construction of photovoltaic companies in the United States. Ultimately, the direct victims will be U.S. domestic Companies and consumers.
Even in the short term, the US domestic PV companies can be protected. However, in the long run, this measure will not only help but will not help but will adversely affect the domestic PV applications in the United States, especially in important photovoltaic applications such as California, Nevada and Texas Will weaken the US domestic photovoltaic industry's international competitiveness.
Bloomberg New Energy Financial analysis, raising tariffs through the revitalization of the U.S. manufacturing sector expectations will fall through the United States, the local component manufacturers are still weighing the establishment of response measures, but at present to see the components imported from Southeast Asia will still be more economical than the new production line in the United States.
China's PV companies have already set up factories around the country earlier, to a certain extent, to avoid tariffs.
