The committee made the complaint on August 15 based on a 39 per cent increase in imports from Vietnam and a 17 per cent increase from Thailand between April 2024 and June 2024, compared to January 2024 through March 2024.

Notably, import levels from the two countries between April 2024, when Wiley Rein, a law firm representing AASMTC, filed anti-dumping and countervailing duty petitions on behalf of the Alliance Trade Committee, and June 2024, were higher than the average recorded import levels in the preceding six months. For instance, monthly imports from Vietnam surged to an all-time high of over 2.5 GW in June 2024. In addition, imports from the country averaged approximately 2.3GW per month between April 2024 and June 2024, in contrast to less than 1.5GW 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 US 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 for the petitioners.

On May 14, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) opened its investigation into the arguments in the petitions filed on April 24, 2024, by the alliance. On June 7, the US International Trade Commission (USITC) made a unanimous affirmative preliminary determination that dumped and subsidised imports from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand are currently injuring US solar cell and module manufacturers (or in the case of subsidised Cambodian imports, threaten such injury). The data so far presents a strong case that Vietnam and Thailand quickly increased their solar panel exports to the US following the petitions filed by the alliance to avoid any duties that could follow an affirmative determination.

Critical circumstances occur when the US Department of Commerce determines that imports are rapidly increasing into the US market of a product that is subject to an anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) investigation. A critical circumstances finding can help offset import surges during an investigation. If the DOC finds critical circumstances, duties can be imposed retroactively on merchandise entered up to 90 days before the preliminary determinations. For those duties to be finalised, the USITC must also find that the surge in imports undermines the relief to which the domestic industry is entitled.

In the next step, the DOC will investigate and make preliminary and final determinations of whether critical circumstances exist. The entire AD/CVD investigation will take approximately one year, with preliminary determinations due in late September 2024 for countervailing duties and late November 2024 for anti-dumping duties. Final determinations of dumping, subsidisation, and injury will likely occur in spring 2025.

This action comes less than a year after the DOC made its final determination that Chinese solar manufacturers were circumventing tariffs on solar cells and solar panels by shipping their products through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The products subject to the critical circumstances petitions are crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from Vietnam and Thailand.

The AASMTC is a coalition of Convalt, First Solar, Meyer Burger, Mission Solar, Qcells, REC Silicon, and Swift Solar.