The US Commerce division additionally set preliminary duties from 86% to 143% for Indonesia and 81% for Laos. The charges are based mostly on a dedication of overseas subsidies that the US says allowed exporters from the nations to undercut merchandise from home photo voltaic producers.
Whereas the duties purpose to profit home producers, they heighten uncertainty for an business not favored by US President Donald Trump and threaten to extend prices for producers in addition to for shoppers.
These duties can be totally different from Trump’s sweeping world tariffs, which the US Supreme Court docket struck down final week. In response, Trump issued new 10% tariffs that he’s threatened to lift to fifteen%. The president additionally had struck a bilateral commerce cope with India earlier this month that had sought to cut back financial tensions between the nations.
India, Indonesia and Laos accounted for 57% of solar-module imports to the US within the first half of 2025, in keeping with BloombergNEF. Some builders had shifted to sourcing panels from there after the US imposed steep duties on 4 Southeast Asian nations that had at one level made up the majority of imports.
Photo voltaic imports from India in 2024 had been valued at $792.6 million, greater than 9 instances the worth in 2022, in keeping with the Commerce Division.
The comparatively excessive responsibility charges will make the US market largely unavailable for Indian photo voltaic panel manufactures, Citi analyst Vikram Bagri wrote in an analysis be aware Tuesday. A US photo voltaic group, the Alliance for American Photo voltaic Manufacturing and Commerce, had petitioned Commerce to analyze the subsidies, saying a probe was wanted to guard US manufacturing.
“As we speak’s discovering is a vital step towards restoring truthful competitors within the US photo voltaic market,” stated Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Worldwide Commerce Follow and lead legal professional for the Alliance. “American producers are investing billions of {dollars} to rebuild home capability and create good-paying jobs. These investments can’t succeed if unfairly traded imports are allowed to distort the market.”
The ultimate dedication on the investigation is scheduled to be issued July 6. The Commerce Division is conducting a concurrent antidumping responsibility probe of photo voltaic cells imported from India, Indonesia and Laos.
