The U.S. Court of International Trade earlier this month has reinstated an exclusion for bifacial solar modules from the Section 201 tariffs that was revoked by the Trump administration a year ago. However, modules from Canadian Solar was exempted from the tariff.
Due to the previous trade agreement (CUSMA) between Canada, the United States and Mexico, when Biden decided to extend tariff 201 for another four years, he instructed the US trade representative to negotiate with Canada to suspend safeguard measures.
Recently, the independent panel representing CUSMA determined that the section 201 tariff launched by the United States in 2018 included photovoltaic cells and modules produced in Canada, which violated part of the CUSMA agreement. Under the clause, the United States must exclude imports from Canada from U.S. safeguards.
The panel suggested that the United States must end tariffs on Canadian solar modules by March 16 (45 days after the panel's decision). The CUSMA panel, composed of three international trade law professionals, concluded that the United States should not include photovoltaic cells and modules imported from Canada in the 2018 tariff, mainly because "the import amount is too small" and they are unlikely to "have a significant impact" on any serious economic losses claimed by U.S. solar product manufacturers.
The Canadian government believes that since the implementation of Section 201 tariff in 2018, Canada's solar panel exports to the United States have decreased by as much as 82%.
In order to avoid Section 201 tariffs, Canadian Solar has established cell and module manufacturing plants in Vietnam, Thailand and other places. However, since last August, Southeast Asia has been facing anti-circumvention investigation proposed by U.S. enterprises. Although the application such investigation was rejected by the Department of Commerce before the end of last year on the grounds of "anonymity". For the second time in less than a year, Auxin Solar last week filed a petition again to opposed alleged unfair trade.
Undoubtedly, the panel’s decision was a great benefit for Canadian Solar, thus setting up a plant in the U.S. would not be necessary. Silfab Solar and Heliene, another two Canadian solar panel manufacturers (both have manufacturing plants in the United States) are also exempted.
