WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday claimed that imported solar products could hurt American manufacturers despite strong opposition from the U.S. solar industry.
"The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cell (Whether or Not Partially or Fully Assembled Into Other Products) are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article in the United States," said the ITC in a statement on Friday.
"As a result, the investigation will move to a remedy phase," it added.
The trade agency will have several more weeks to work out remedy recommendation for U.S. President Donald Trump. The decision will allow Trump to erect trade barriers, such as punitive tariffs on the imported solar products.
"The ITC's decision is disappointing for nearly 9,000 U.S. solar companies and the 260,000 Americans they employ," Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a statement on Friday.
In May 2017, two American solar manufacturers, Suniva and SolarWorld, filed a petition with the ITC under Section 201 of the Trade Act requesting high tariff on imported crystalline-silicon solar products and high minimum price floors for imported solar modules.
The SEIA said that Suniva's remedy proposal will double the price of solar, destroy two-thirds of demand, erode billions of dollars in investment and unnecessarily force 88,000 Americans to lose their jobs in 2018.
The petition also drew criticism from states which have pushed for solar industry aggressively.
Governors of Nevada, Colorado, Massachusetts, and North Carolina on Thursday sent a letter to ITC chairman and urged the agency to reject the trade petition.
The four governors said that the tariff proposals could cause America to lose out on 47 gigawatts of solar installations, representing billions of dollars of infrastructure investment in their states.