Chinese PV company JinkoSolar said on Friday that the U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) preliminary decision on its countervailing duty investigation to impose import duties on certain crystalline silicon PV products from China would ultimately hurt U.S. customers and the country's solar jobs market.
The Commerce Department announced on Tuesday plans to impose new import tariffs on PV modules from China after concluding Chinese manufacturers had been unfairly benefitting from government subsidies. The Commerce Department's preliminary findings determined that producers and exporters in China will be subject to a countervailing subsidy rate ranging from 18.56% to 35.21%. According to the findings, JinkoSolar will be subject to a preliminary subsidy rate of 26.89%.
"We are disappointed to see the DOC's preliminary decision and believe that this will have a negative impact on the solar industry and will ultimately end up hurting U.S. customers and U.S. solar jobs the most," said JinkoSolar Chairman Xiande Li. "Ill-conceived trade barriers such as these only aid in reducing the competitiveness of solar energy against other forms of power generation," he added.
Li said JinkoSolar had fully cooperated with the relevant authorities throughout the investigation and would continue to do so "in the hope that international trade and fair competition will eventually prevail. While we respect the DOC's decision, we strongly disagree with it.
"With a balanced and geographically diverse customer base, the tariffs are unlikely to have a significant impact on our entire business. We will continue to actively serve our customers in the US while we seek out other growth opportunities."
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