Wiley Files Critical Circumstances Allegations Against Vietnam, Thailand Solar Imports

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, represented by Wiley Rein, has filed critical circumstances allegations with the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding surges of solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand that it feels are injuring the U.S. solar industry. 

The committee based its allegations on what it found to be a 39% increase in imports from Vietnam and a 17% increase from Thailand between April and June this year, compared to January through March. 

It further calls attention to import levels from the two countries between April, when Wiley filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions on behalf of the committee, and June were higher than the average recorded import levels in the preceding six months. For instance, monthly imports from Vietnam reached 2.5 GW in June, compared to 1.5 GW per month in the preceding six months. 

“When we submitted our petitions a few months ago, several China-based companies operating in Thailand and Vietnam appear to have actively accelerated their U.S. solar exports, likely to evade impending duties. We were therefore compelled to file these critical circumstances allegations in response to these new surges of imports,” said Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley’s International Trade Practice and lead counsel to the petitioners. 

“We cannot allow these countries – and Chinese-owned companies – to continue harming the U.S. market unabated.”  

In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce opened its investigation into the arguments in the petitions filed in April by the Alliance. In June, the U.S. International Trade Commission made an affirmative preliminary determination that dumped and subsidized imports from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand are currently injuring U.S. solar cell and module manufacturers (or in the case of subsidized Cambodian imports, threaten such injury). 

The committee claims that data so far suggests that Vietnam and Thailand increased their solar panel exports to the United States following the petitions filed by the Alliance to avoid any duties that could follow an affirmative determination.