The Dept. of Commerce has determined that countervailable duties have been provided to certain crystalline silicon PV cells imported from China following a years long administrative review.
DOC published its findings in the Federal Register on Tuesday. Countervailable subsidies purport that an imported product has been subsidized to an economically damaging degree by the exporting country.
This chart denoting countervailing subsidies from Chinese crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers was published in the Federal Register.
The investigation named three Chinese companies — Yingli Energy Company Limited, Jiangsu Highhope International Group Corporation and Yangzhou Jinghua New Energy Technology Co. — that claims were supported by a governmental countervailing rate of 117.41%. Other unnamed exporting companies were determined to have a countervailing rate of 9.07%.
DOC will provide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with instructions to apply countervailing duties (CVD) on products containing solar cells from the affected companies. CBP will then collect duties on those products.
This investigation into these imported solar cells was initiated in 2022. It was originally scheduled to be completed by October 20, 2025, but was delayed due to the federal government shutdown.
These duties imposed on the affected crystalline silicon solar cell suppliers join an import market already busy with tariffs. In addition to the sweeping tariffs on imports initiated by the Trump administration in 2025, there are ongoing trade restrictions and anti-dumping and CVD investigations at varying levels of progress affecting the U.S. solar industry. More can be read about these recent trade issues here.
This is a developing story.
